Drug design based on asparagine synthetase inhibitors

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Human asparagine synthetase (hAS) is responsible for leukemia cells to acquire a resistant phenotype for asparaginase, a currently well-adopted chemotherapy to treat acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). The purpose of this study is to design, synthesis and evaluation of novel and potent inhibitors of hAS for developing a new drug lead for asparaginase-resistant leukemia. According to the catalytic mechanism of hAS, we have developed a series of N-adenosylsulfoximines as transition-state analogue inhibitors of hAS. The N-adenosylsulfoximines were found to inhibit hAS strongly in a time-dependent manner with an overall inhibition constant (Ki*) of 7.6 nM. Interestingly, the N-adenosylsulfoximine caused cell death as well as inhibition of cell proliferation of asparaginase-resistant leukemia cells. Thus we have shown that hAS is a highly promising target for anti-leukemia chemotherapy in the current clinical settings and that the N-adenosylsulfoximines serves as a promising drug lead.