Prodrugs of Neuraminidase Inhibitors for Increased Oral Bioavailability

描述(申请人提供)：病毒编码的神经氨酸酶在流感病毒的生命周期中发挥关键作用。一类抑制神经氨酸酶作用的抗流感药物因其选择性和有效性而在制药行业引起了越来越多的兴趣。这些抑制剂是酶底物唾液酸的过渡态类似物，在体外和体内研究中都非常有效，IC50值在NM范围内。然而，这些药物的极性很强，因此口服生物利用度很差。在TSRL，我们开发了一种针对肠道转运体的氨基酸前体药物策略，以增强摄取。然后，被吸收的前药的后续激活可以通过前药的靶向酶解或将前药化学分解成激活的母体化合物来发生。这一策略是基于对细胞和组织中的运输和激活途径以及前药结构与这些途径的相互作用的分子机制的理解。在本方案中，我们开发了两种神经氨酸酶抑制剂的新型氨基酸前药，并提供了强有力的支持数据，表明这些前药通过肠道转运体主动转运，并被很好地吸收。我们表明，通过我们的方法，我们可以提高选定的神经氨酸酶抑制剂的口服可利用性，达到它们在流感动物模型中有效并具有作为口服药物产品开发的高潜力的程度。在目前的项目中，我们建议通过在体内(小鼠和雪貂)测试开发的一系列化合物来对抗一系列流感病毒株，包括最近的H1N1毒株、季节性流感毒株、抗药性病毒和高致病性病毒株，从而选择一种主要的神经氨酸酶抑制剂。我们的前药设计的“分子机制”方法在开发口服有效的神经氨酸酶抑制剂方面具有巨大的潜力。 公共卫生相关性：TSRL已经开发出一种方法来提高抗流感药物的口服生物利用度，从而使它们适合口服给药。我们建议合成并测试一系列这些化合物作为口服抗流感药物的潜力。最终，这种方法可能会增加可用于治疗和预防流感的有效抗病毒化合物的数量。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Virally-encoded neuraminidase plays a key role in the life-cycle of the influenza virus. A class of anti-influenza drugs that inhibits the action of neuraminidase has garnered increasing interest in the pharmaceutical industry due to their selectivity and potency. The inhibitors are transition state analogs of the enzyme substrate, sialic acid, and are highly efficacious in in vitro and in vivo studies, with IC50 values in the nM range. However these drugs are very polar and consequently have poor oral bioavailability. At TSRL, we have a developed an amino acid prodrug strategy that targets intestinal transporters for enhanced uptake. Subsequent activation of the absorbed prodrug can then occur either through targeted enzymatic hydrolysis of the prodrug or chemical breakdown of the prodrug to the activate parent compound. This strategy is based on a molecular mechanistic understanding of the transport and activation pathways in cells and tissues and the interaction of prodrug structures with these pathways. In this proposal, we have developed novel amino acid prodrugs of two neuraminidase inhibitors and provide strong supporting data showing that these prodrugs are actively transported by intestinal transporter and are well absorbed. We show that through our approach, we can boost the oral availability of selected neuraminidase inhibitors to an extent that they are effective in animal models of influenza and have high potential to be developed as oral drug products. In the current project, we propose to select a lead neuraminidase inhibitor by in vivo (mouse and ferret) testing of the developed series of compounds against a range of influenza strains, including recent H1N1 isolates, seasonal flu isolates, drug resistant virus and high pathogenic strains of the virus. Our "molecular mechanistic" approach to prodrug design has enormous potential for the development of orally effective neuraminidase inhibitors. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: TSRL has developed an approach to improve the oral bioavailability of anti-influenza drugs, thus making them suitable for oral delivery. We propose to synthesize and test a series of these compounds for their potential as oral anti-influenza agents. Ultimately, this approach may increase the number of potent anti-virus compounds that are available for therapeutic and prophylactic treatment of influenza.