Infection with the hepatitis C virus (HCV) has a big impact on global health. It is estimated that approximately 3 % of the world’s population carry HCV, putting more than 200 million people at risk of developing severe liver disease, including chronic hepatitis, liver cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma. The HCV encoded viroporin p7 forms ion channels that are crucial for the assembly and secretion of infectious viruses, making it a potential drug target. Its hydrophobic nature makes p7 notoriously difficult to investigate in an untagged native form. A previously determined 16 Å electron microscopy single-particle reconstruction in detergent showed a hexameric, flower-shaped p7 protein. In conjunction with one hexameric and several monomeric p7 solution state NMR structures published, this constitutes the currently available structural information framework. An E. coli expression system is introduced, which is especially adapted to express isotopically labeled p7. For the first time, suitable solution-state NMR conditions at physiological pH and temperature were identified that gave rise to high quality spectra suitable to interrogate iminosugar drug interactions with untagged isotopically labeled J4 p7 (C27S) solubilised in detergent. A novel secondary structure topology was observed and preliminary iminosugar binding sites were determined. Further, a DIB (droplet interface bilayer) system to analyse p7 ion channel function was established, which is suitable to elucidate how inhibitors act on p7 genotypes and how different lipids influence the ion channel function of p7. The p7 oligomeric state was further investigated using native gel analysis, showing that isolates representing HCV genotypes 1 - 6 form oligomeric complexes. An ion channel defective dibasic mutant implicated in severely compromising viral fitness is also shown for the first time to form an oligomer, implicating that it is not an assembly problem that leads to the abrogated function.

京都大学 / 新制・課程博士 / 博士(農学) / 甲第24247号 / 農博第2526号 / 新制||農||1094(附属図書館) / 学位論文||R4||N5418(農学部図書室) / 京都大学大学院農学研究科食品生物科学専攻 / (主査)教授 保川 清, 教授 井上 和生, 教授 谷 史人 / 学位規則第4条第1項該当 / Doctor of Agricultural Science / Kyoto University / DFAM

Iminosugars are known to behave as carbohydrate mimics in biological systems by virtue of their similar structures. However as the ring nitrogen prevents metabolism it means that iminosugars have the potential to become inhibitors of these systems. It is known, for example, that iminosugars can behave as mimics in the hydrolysis mechanism. This leads to possible medicinal applications of iminosugars. One such case is lysosomal storage disorders which arise as a result of a genetic defect which causes missense mutations coding for the N-acetylhexosaminidase enzymatic protein. N-Acetylhexosaminidases are a sub-member of the class of glycosidase enzymes. They are responsible for the cleavage of N-acetylhexosamine residues from glycoconjugates in the lysosome. Mutations in the gene coding for this protein lead to a deficiency in the enzymatic activity resulting in accumulation of unhydrolysed substrate in the lysosome. Lysosomal storage disorders have a phenotype of poor motor development and neurological problems. The infantile form usually leads to death before the age of five. An iminosugar mimic could give rise to a possible treatment for lysosomal storage disorders by acting as a molecular chaperone during protein folding, promoting correct folding by its intrinsic affinity for the native fold of the enzyme. Likewise in the treatment of cancer, the inhibitory ability of iminosugars has potential applications. In cancer, extracellular hydrolysis occurs which favours cancer cell survival. Macrophages, which attack and eliminate cancer cells, can be activated by macrophage activating factor (MAF) which displays an α-N-acetylgalactosamine residue that appears essential for the activation cascade. Cancer cells secrete an α-N-acetylgalactosaminidase enzyme that acts to decrease the potency of MAF, thus promoting cancer cell survival. Inhibition of cancer cell α-N-acetylgalactosaminidase may restore macrophage activation and generate potential therapeutics. Chapter 1 of this thesis contains extended discussion of the aforementioned, and related, diseases and the therapeutic applications of iminosugars. Some historically and biologically important iminosugars are described along with some current iminosugar drugs. Chapter 2 describes the synthetic strategies explored in an attempt to synthesise all the members of the 2-acetamido pyrrolidine iminosugars. An overview of the compounds synthesised towards this end by a past group member is given along with the work performed as part of this thesis to complete this goal. Both enantiomers with arabino- and ribo- stereochemistry and D-lyxo- were previously synthesised. The syntheses of both enantiomers with xylo- stereochemistry along with the L-lyxo- compound were completed as part of this thesis, from either D- or L-glucuronolactone and D-ribose, respectively. Chapter 3 details the synthetic strategy adopted to synthesise the enantiomer of D-DNJNAc, the first potent α-N-acetylgalactosaminidase inhibitor to be found. The synthesis towards another piperidine iminosugar, 6-deoxy DGJNAc, is presented in the second half of this chapter, along with two related compounds.

Iminosugars are polyhydroxylated alkaloids, and can be viewed as sugar analogues in which the endocyclic oxygen atom has been replaced with nitrogen. These compounds are highly medically relevant and their biological activity is largely due to their inhibition of glycosidases. Several examples of the iminosugar class are currently marketed as drugs, and many more are in earlier stages of development for a variety of diseases and disorders. The most fruitful approaches to the chemical synthesis of iminosugars have utilised carbohydrate starting materials as optically pure chiral building blocks, or chirons. Most of the monosaccharides are not readily available, but the relatively few naturally abundant cheap sugars have been exploited as chirons for over a century. The availability of the rare sugars is growing with the development of a new biotechnological approach to their synthesis, known as Izumoring. This thesis is primarily concerned with the chemical synthesis of iminosugars from carbohydrate starting materials. The synthesis of unnaturally functionalised sugar polyols and their suitability as substrates for the Izumoring process is also discussed. Chapter 1 provides a brief general overview of the history, natural occurrence and therapeutic application of iminosugars. General strategies for their synthesis from carbohydrate chirons are discussed. Chapter 2 concerns divergent syntheses of several iminosugar targets from both enantiomers of glucuronolactone and their biological evaluation. A new scaleable synthesis of the natural product 1-deoxynojirimycin is presented that has since been adopted for commercial purposes, as well as an efficient strategy for the synthesis of both enantiomers of 2,5-dideoxy-2,5-imino- mannitol and their novel amino acid analogues. Access to hexosaminidase inhibiting acetamido- substituted piperidines is presented, including 2-acetamido-1,5-imino-1,2,5-trideoxy-D- galactitol, which has been found to be one of the few known potent and specific inhibitors of α- N-acetyl-galactosaminidase. This inhibitory profile may allow the compound’s use for further investigation of a strategy for cancer treatment. Chapter 3 concerns the synthesis of carbon branched pyrrolidines and their biological evaluation. A novel and highly potent α-glycosidase inhibitor has been discovered, synthesised by a strategy that utilises the benzhydryl ether as key protecting group. A mild method for the introduction of this protecting group has been shown to be general to a range of sterically congested and/or acid/base sensitive carbohydrate lactones. Chapter 4 concerns the synthesis of deoxygenated and fluorinated sugar alcohols and their successful biotechnological transformation into ketoses by the Izumoring process. Publications arising from this work are included in the Appendix.

N-glycosylated proteins that traverse the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) can make use of the calnexin cycle to attain their correct fold. The calnexin cycle modifies the N-glycan structure and allows for association of the glycoprotein with the ER lectins calnexin and calreticulin, which in turn recruit further chaperones that assist folding. Most enveloped viruses encode glycoproteins, which, upon infection of a host cell, crucially depend on the calnexin cycle to aid their folding. This includes diverse families such as Flaviviridae, Retroviridae and Orthomyxoviridae. We studied the calnexin cycle components with the ultimate aim of developing broad-spectrum antivirals. X-ray crystallography was used to structurally characterise the murine ER α-glucosidase I, which controls entry into the calnexin cycle, with a number of inhibitory antiviral iminosugars. These data reveal flexibility in the ligands' alkyl tails and may act as a basis for the discovery of enzyme specific inhibitors. UDP-glucose: glycoprotein glucosyltransferase (UGGT) is the quality control checkpoint of the calnexin cycle whose full-length structure from the thermophilic fungus Chaetomium thermophilum was recently determined. Presented here are a higher resolution structure in addition to SAXS studies of UGGT's interaction with Sep15, a protein that enhances UGGT activity. UGGT's reaction releases into the ER lumen UDP, which is the only known small molecule inhibitor of UGGT. An ER-resident UDPase, ENTPD5, breaks down UDP into UMP. Enzymatic characterisation of ENTPD5 reveals its substrate specificities; in addition we show a paralog, ENTPD6, possesses similar activities. Presented here is work towards crystallisation of these two proteins and a test of the anti-Zika activity of ENTPD5 inhibitors. Finally, CRISPR/Cas9 knock-out cells were generated to test, in principle, whether modulation of the activity of proteins involved in the calnexin cycle could be antiviral. The data confirm that the ER glucosidases are likely the best targets of those studied.

Carbohydrates represent a keystone among biological molecules. Well known as a source of energy, sugars also form the backbone of various biopolymers, act as markers and receptors for cellular communication and modulate lipid and protein functions. As such a powerful class, carbohydrates represent a useful pool from which both nature and man have drawn structures to produce biologically active compounds with a variety of modes of action. Beyond their importance to biology, sugars have represented attractive synthetic targets to chemists given their densely functionalized scaffolds. The work presented in this thesis aims to employ synthetic chemistry to provide both natural and designed carbohydrates in order to carry out biological studies to improve our understanding of these compounds' particular effects. In the first part, a synthesis is developed for the carboline disaccharide domain of the cytotoxic enediyne, shishijimicin A. The route employs a Reetz-Müller-Starke reaction to install the domain's quaternary center, with addition of a carboline dianion to complete the target. Iminosugars represent the focus of the second portion of the thesis. These polyhydroxylated alkaloids have long been investigated for their ability to mimic single sugars, inhibiting various glycosidases and glycosyltransferases. The endocyclic nitrogen atom of members of this class can act as a functional handle for alkylation, with increased chain length increasing both potency of enzyme inhibition and toxicity in cellula. Specific iminopyranose structures with D-gluco stereochemistry have broad-spectrum antiviral activity, while those with D-galacto stereochemistry are antiviral with respect to hepatitis C, but not other genetically related viruses. Reported herein are syntheses of classes of iminosugars to determine the influence of both N-alkylation chain length and iminopyranose stereochemistry on the spectrum of antiviral activity. Complementing antiviral activity with isolated enzyme inhibition assays, the work aims to identify new targets for next generation antivirals. Finally, the prototypical iminosugar, D-deoxynojirimycin, is conjugated to a second natural product, D-α-tocopherol. By replacing the more common normal alkyl group with a lipid, the goal was to reduce cellular toxicity, while also taking advantage of the natural active transport for the lipid to increase uptake of the drug. Surprisingly, this change provided a marked shift in selectivity of enzyme inhibition and antiviral ability. In order to fully characterize the mechanism, the mentioned enzymatic and antiviral studies were supplemented with lipidomic, STED-microscopy and pharmacokinetic investigations.

Les iminosucres sont des composés azotés polyhydroxylés mono- (pyrrolidine, piperidine, azepane) ou bicycliques (pyrrolizidine, indolizidine, nortropane) démontrant une forte activité inhibitrice envers les glycosidases, enzymes catalysant l'hydrolyse des liaisons glycosidiques des glycoconjugués. Le développement de nouveaux dérivés d'iminosucres est essentiel afin d'obtenir de nouveaux traitements contre des maladies comme le diabète de type II, la mucoviscidose ou les troubles du stockage lysosomale (maladies de Gaucher ou de Fabry par exemple). Des études récentes ont démontré que l'utilisation de systèmes multivalents d'iminosucres peut amener à des inhibitions plus fortes et plus sélectives envers les glycosidases comparés aux inhibiteurs monovalents. Cependant, une grande majorité de ces systèmes multivalents, incluant des systèmes multivalents basés sur une plateforme de type calixarène synthétisés au début de cette thèse, sont obtenus grâce à la cyclo-addition azoture alcyne catalysée par le cuivre(CuAAC). Malheureusement, cette réaction puissante mène à la contamination des systèmes multivalents par des quantités non négligeables d'ions cuivre toxiques. C'est pour cela que le principal but de ce doctorat a été de développer de nouvelles méthodes de ligations afin de former des architectures multivalentes d'iminosucres sans utiliser de catalyseurs métalliques toxiques.Premièrement, des ligations déjà exploitées pour la préparation de sucres multivalents comme l'addition radicalaire photoinduite d'un thiol sur un alcène terminal (couplage thiol-ène) et la ligation oxime ont été appliqués aux iminosucres avec succès. Ces approches ont alors permis de synthétiser des systèmes multivalents basés respectivement sur des plateformes de type calixarènes ou peptides cycliques.Dans un second temps, une nouvelle approche vers des systèmes multivalents de sucres et d'iminosucres a été développée en exploitant les remarquables stabilité et réactivité des fluorures de sulfonyle. Le couplage de ces derniers avec des partenaires portant une amine primaire a permis d'obtenir des clusters de sucres et d'iminosucres liés par une fonction sulfonamide avec de très bons rendements.Parallèlement, le couplage thiol-ène a permis la préparation simple et rapide de pseudo-disaccharides d'iminosucres, une nouvelle classe d'inhibiteur de glycosidases exhibant de meilleures activités et sélectivités que les iminosucres monosaccharidiques correspondants. Ce comportement est probablement du à la présence de l'unité saccharidique qui améliore l'analogie entre l'inhibiteur et les oligosaccharides naturels, substrats des glycosidases. / Iminosugars are naturally occurring, polyhydroxylated monocyclic (pyrrolidine, piperidine, azepane) and bicyclic (pyrrolizidine, indolizidine, nortropane) nitrogenated compounds endowed with strong inhibition activity against glycosidases, the enzymes that catalyse the cleavage of the glycosidic bonds in glycoconjugates. The development of new iminosugar derivatives is essential to obtain new treatments against diseases such as type II diabetes, cystic fibrosis or lysosomal storage disorders (Gaucher and Fabry diseases). Although the development of glycosidase inhibitors based on iminosugar clusters was not explored for a long period of time, recent studies have demonstrated that multivalent iminosugars are stronger and more selective inhibitors than the corresponding monovalent compounds. However, nearly two thirds of all the di- and multivalent iminosugars known to date, including the calixarene-based iminosugar clusters synthesized at the beginning of the thesis work, were obtained by means of the copper-mediated azide-alkyne cycloaddition (CuAAC). Unfortunately, this highly efficient reaction leads to the contamination of the multivalent compounds by significant amounts of noxious copper ions. Thus, the main aim of the present PhD research was the development of new ligation tools for the synthesis of multivalent iminosugars in the absence of metal catalysts. First, the ligations already exploited for the preparation of multivalent sugars, such as the photoinduced radical addition of thiol to terminal akenes (thiol-ene coupling) and the oxime ligation, were successfully applied to the iminosugars. Both approaches allowed the synthesis of iminosugar clusters based on calixarene and cyclopeptide scaffolds, respectively. Then, an unprecedented approach to multivalent sugars and iminosugars was developed taking advantage of the uncommon stability and reactivity of the sulfonyl fluoride moieties. The coupling of the latter with partners bearing a primary amine group afforded the corresponding sulfonamide-linked sugar and iminosugar clusters in high yield. Finally, the above-mentioned thiol-ene coupling also allowed the straightforward preparation of new iminosugar pseudo-disaccharides, a class of inhibitors endowed with higher glycosidase selectivity than the corresponding monosaccharidic iminosugar. This feature is due to the presence of the sugar unit which improves the analogy with the natural oligosaccharidic substrates of the glycosidases.

Iminosugars are polyhydroxylated alkaloids, and can be generally defined as sugar mimetics in which the endocyclic oxygen atom has been replaced with a basic nitrogen. A common affect of this atomic substitution is to bestow these compounds with the ability to inhibit various sugarprocessing enzymes; most significantly the glycosidases (glycoside hydrolases) which areintimately involved in a huge array of biological functions. Compounds which inhibit these enzymes concordantly possess much potential as medicinal agents for the treatment of a variety of diseases. Several iminosugars have already achieved market approval as drugs, and many more are promising candidates in the late stages of clinical development. As such there remains considerable interest in this class of compound, both in terms of the exploration of novel iminosugar structures, as well as the continual development of more efficient general methodology for their synthesis. The densely-packed functionality and stereochemical information present in iminosugars makes them challenging targets for asymmetric chemical synthesis, whereas carbohydrates are clearly very attractive as chiral-pool starting materials for this purpose. Indeed, the majority of the most successful syntheses of iminosugars use the latter approach, and such is the focus of this thesis. Chapter 1 presents a relatively brief introduction to iminosugars, including their types of structure, natural occurrence and biological mode of action. The rationale behind their use as therapeutic agents for the treatment of some significant disease targets is also discussed. Chapter 2 is concerned with the preparation of a number of novel polyhydroxylated azetidines, and their evaluation as glycosidase inhibitors. Such compounds represent an almost entirely neglected class of iminosugars within the literature. An overview of natural and synthetic products incorporating an azetidine motif is given, as well as a brief review of preparative methods and known azetidine iminosugars. A highly efficient and flexible method for the key azetidine ring formation is demonstrated by the cyclisations of 3,5-di-O-triflates of pentoses and hexoses, and of a 2,4-di-O-triflate of glucose, with various primary amines. In this manner, many azetidine triols and tetrols were prepared in good yield. Furthermore, this process is readily adaptable to the installation of added functionality to the azetidine scaffold, as demonstrated by the preparation of 1-acetamido analogues. The initial biological screening of these compounds showed a promising array of glycosidase inhibition, including that of selective inhibition of fungal enzymes. Chapter 3 describes a strategy with which to prepare all sixteen stereoisomers of a known piperidine iminosugar, alpha-homonojirimycin (alpha-HNJ), in a highly divergent manner from just four of the possible thirty-two 6-azidoheptitols using traditional chemical synthesis in tandem with biotechnological transformations. One half of the execution of this strategy is described in this thesis. Two 6-azidoheptitols were prepared from D-mannose, thereby providing access to four 6-azidoketoheptoses through a combination of microbial oxidation and enzymatic epimerisation. Catalytic hydrogenation of these 6-azidoketoheptoses furnished four diastereomeric mixtures of 2,6-iminoheptitols, with varying degrees of stereoselectivity. Purification of these mixtures allowed six 2,6-iminoheptitols to be isolated, two of which have never previously been tested for glycosidase inhibition. Significantly, one of them was found to be a potent and highly selectiveinhibitor of alpha-galactosidases, and may therefore be of interest in the treatment of Fabry disease.

No description available.

Iminosugars are a class of small molecules defined by substitution of a sugar’s ring oxygen with nitrogen. Various chemical modifications of these basic structures (e.g. alkyl chain addition off of the ring nitrogen) have been developed during the last several decades. These molecules have been considered as therapeutics for a number of pathologies including viral infection, congenital disorders of glycosylation (of both glycoproteins and glycolipids), and diabetes. This thesis focuses on the application of a small subset of iminosugars, known as deoxynojirimycin derivatives, as therapeutics against dengue virus induced pathology. Dengue virus infection predominates in tropical climates, but autochthonous infection has recently emerged in areas of both southern Europe and the southern United States. With 390 million people infected annually, dengue is the most prevalent arthropod-borne viral infection worldwide, and the possibility of severe pathology including haemorrhage, shock, and/or death, necessitates development of effective antiviral therapies. Although the molecular mechanisms responsible for progression to severe dengue disease are not completely understood, there is considerable evidence for the role of both the innate and the adaptive immune responses in development of life-threatening complications. Excessive activation of the innate immune response, a phenomenon known as cytokine storm, has been hypothesised to explain development of symptoms related to vascular permeability, whereas the adaptive immune response has been implicated in severe disease through two hypotheses – the antibody dependent enhancement and original antigenic sin hypotheses. The evidence regarding each of these potential mechanisms of severe pathology is discussed throughout this thesis principally with respect to how iminosugar treatment could alter any detrimental effects of the immune response to dengue virus infection. The principal aim of this thesis is to consider the potential of deoxynojirimycin iminosugars as antiviral therapeutics in dengue infection with a focus on how these molecules exert their antiviral effects in primary human cells. I first consider the contributions of glycoprotein inhibition and glycolipid inhibition on production of infectious dengue virus. These experiments suggest that inhibition of glycoprotein folding is responsible for inhibition of infectious dengue virus production. I next consider the impact of treatment of a promising clinical candidate iminosugar, N9-methoxynonyl-deoxynojirimycin (MON-DNJ), on the primary human macrophage transcriptome. In uninfected macrophages as well as macrophages infected with dengue virus or treated with lipopolysaccharide to model bacterial sepsis, iminosugar treatment results in activation of the unfolded protein response and inhibition of several elements of the inflammatory response including signalling by the cytokines IFN-γ and TNF-α, and the inflammatory cascade mediated by NF-κB. Activation of the unfolded protein response as a result of treatment with MON-DNJ can be confirmed by analysis of phosphorylated (activated) NFE2L2, a transcription factor that functions principally to control oxidative stress in response to ER stress signals. Modulation of the inflammatory response of macrophages to dengue infection and bacterial sepsis is confirmed by analysis of secreted cytokines. As predicted by my transcriptomic experiments, levels of TNF-α and IFN-γ produced in response to dengue or lipopolysaccharide are reduced by treatment with MON-DNJ. Finally, I attempted to extend these observations to an animal model of dengue infection with a particular focus on TNF receptor and ligand superfamily members. Unfortunately, heterogeneity of cells types from tissue samples as well as limitations of the animal model complicate interpretation of these findings. Nevertheless, this thesis demonstrates that MON-DNJ is an effective dengue antiviral therapeutic and that this therapeutic activity may be related to both reduction of infectious virus as a consequence of inhibition of glycoprotein processing and as a result of changes to the host’s response to the pathogen. These results have been used in part to justify recently initiated clinical trials of MON-DNJ as a dengue antiviral therapy.