Hepatitis C is a blood-borne disease affecting 130-170 million people worldwide. The causative agent, hepatitis C virus (HCV), infects the liver and is the major reason for chronic liver disease worldwide. The HCV NS3 protease, a key enzyme in the virus replication cycle, has been confirmed to be an important target for drug development. With the recent release of two HCV NS3 protease inhibitors onto the market and an arsenal of inhibitors in clinical trials, there are now hopes of finally combating the disease. However, the success of treatment relies heavily on the ability to overcome the emergence of drug-resistant forms of the protease. The main focus of this thesis was on designing and synthesizing novel inhibitors of the NS3 protease with a unique resistance profile. Efforts were also made to decrease the peptide character of the compounds, with the long-term goal of making them into more drug-like compounds. Special attention was devoted to developing inhibitors based on a phenylglycine in the P2 position, instead of the highly optimized and commonly used P2 proline. Around ninety acyclic and macrocyclic inhibitors have been synthesized and biochemically evaluated. P2 pyrimidinyloxy phenylglycine was successfully combined with an aromatic P1 moiety and alkenylic P1´ elongations, yielding a distinct class of HCV NS3 protease inhibitors. Macrocyclization was performed in several directions of the inhibitors via ring-closing metathesis. Only the macrocyclization between the P3-P1´ residues was successful in terms of inhibitory potency, which suggests that the elongated P1-P1´ residue is oriented towards the P3 side chain. The metathesis reaction was found to be significantly more dependent on the substrate than on the reaction conditions. It was also found that the P3 truncated inhibitors were able to retain good inhibitory potency, which initiated the synthesis and evaluation of a series of P2-P1´ inhibitors. The potential of the P3-P1´cyclized inhibitor and the smaller, acyclic P2-P1´ as new potential drug leads remains to be determined through pharmacokinetic profiling. Gratifyingly, all the inhibitors evaluated on A156T and D168V substituted enzyme variants were able to retain inhibitory potency towards these as compared to wild-type inhibition.

Hepatitis C is a global health problem that affects approximately 120–180 million people. This viral infection causes serious liver diseases and the therapy available suffers from low efficiency and severe side effects. Consequently, there is a huge unmet medical need for new therapeutic agents to combat the hepatitis C virus (HCV). Inhibition of the viral NS3 protease has recently emerged as a promising approach to defeat this infection, and the first HCV NS3 protease inhibitors have now entered clinical trials. In this project, several novel HCV NS3 protease inhibitors have been designed, synthesized and biochemically evaluated. Inhibitors with various P1 C-terminal functional groups intended as potential bioisosteres to the carboxylic acid found in product-based inhibitors have been revealed. Special focus has been placed on establishing structure–activity relationships of inhibitors containing the promising P1 C-terminal acyl sulfonamide group. The properties of the acyl sulfonamide functionality that are important for producing potent inhibitors have been identified. In addition, the advantages of the acyl sulfonamide group compared to the carboxylic acid have been demonstrated in both enzymatic and cell-based assays. Besides the acyl sulfonamide functionality, the acyl cyanamide and the acyl sulfinamide groups have been identified as new carboxylic acid bioisosteres in HCV NS3 protease inhibitors. The synthetic work included the development of a fast and convenient methodology for the preparation of aryl acyl sulfonamides. The use of microwave heating and Mo(CO)6 as a solid carbon monoxide source provided aryl acyl sulfonamides from aryl halides in excellent yields. This method was subsequently used in the decoration of novel HCV NS3 protease inhibitors comprising a non-natural P1 moiety. This new class of compounds can be used as lead structures in a future optimization process aimed at producing more drug-like HCV NS3 protease inhibitors.

The hepatitis C virus (HCV), with a global prevalence of roughly 2%, is among the most serious diseases today. Among the more promising HCV targets is the NS3 protease, for which several drug candidates have entered clinical trials. In this work, computational methods have been developed and applied to the design of inhibitors of the HCV NS3 protease. Comparative molecular field analysis (CoMFA) modeling and molecular docking are the two main computational tools used in this work. CoMFA is currently the most widely used 3D-QSAR method. Methodology for improving its predictive performance by evaluating 6120 combinations of non-default parameters has been developed. This methodology was tested on 9 data sets for various targets and found to consistently provide models of enhanced predictive accuracy. Validation was performed using q2, r2pred and response variable randomization. Molecular docking was used to develop SARs in two series of inhibitors of the HCV NS3 protease. In the first series, preliminary investigations indicated that replacement of P2 proline with phenylglycine would improve potency. Docking suggested that phenylglycine-based inhibitors may participate in two additional interactions but that the larger, more flexible phenylglycine group may result in worse ligand fit, explaining the loss in potency. In the second series, β-amino acids were explored as α-amino acid substitutes. Although β-amino acid substitution may reduce the negative attributes of peptide-like compounds, this study showed that β-amino acid substitution resulted in reduced potency. The P3 position was least sensitive to substitution and the study highlighted the importance of interactions in the oxyanion hole. Finally, docking was used to provide the conformations and alignment necessary for a CoMFA model. This CoMFA model, derived using default settings, had q2 = 0.31 and r2pred = 0.56. Application of the optimization methodology provided a more predictive model with q2 = 0.48 and r2pred = 0.68.

Infection by the hepatitis C virus (HCV) leads to inflammation of the liver, i.e. hepatitis. The acute infection often progresses to a chronic phase during which the liver function is gradually impaired. Approximately 20% of these chronic cases develop liver cirrhosis, with an ensuing increased risk of liver cancer. Global estimates of the total number of chronic cases range from 123–170 million. Yet, neither specific anti-HCV drugs nor vaccines are available. When drugs become available for daily clinical use, rapid development of drug-resistant strains is expected, making resistance an important issue. One of the most studied targets for specific anti-HCV drugs is the NS3 protease. The main objectives of the work presented in this thesis were to design and synthesise peptidomimetic inhibitors of this enzyme, and to establish the structure–activity relationships (SARs) regarding the inhibition of the wild type as well as of the known resistant variants A156T and D168V. Substituted prolines are common P2 residues in HCV NS3 protease inhibitors. To decrease the peptide character of the inhibitors, the non-coded phenylglycine was evaluated as a proline replacement in combination with known and novel P3 and P1 residues and P2 substituents. The results confirmed that phenylglycine is a promising P2 scaffold, with a possible π-stacking interaction with histidine 57 of the active site. However, to benefit from its full potential, additional optimisation is required. A 2(1H)-pyrazinone-based scaffold was introduced as P3 residue. Utilising the scope of the method developed for the pyrazinone scaffold synthesis, the phenylglycine side-chain was transferred to the scaffold. In combination with an aromatic P1 building-block, this design yielded achiral, peptidomimetic inhibitors, three times more potent than the tripeptide lead. The SARs for the inhibition of the resistant variants A156T and D168V were investigated for compounds based on either P2 proline or phenyl­glycine. It was concluded that the vulnerability of the inhibitors to alterations in the enzyme depends on the P2 and the P1 residue, not only on the P2 as previously suggested. These results provide important information for the design of a new generation of inhibitors with improved properties.