Angewandte
Chemie
DOI: 10.1002/anie.201202090
CXCR4 Ligands
A Conformationally Frozen Peptoid Boosts CXCR4 Affinity and
Anti-HIV Activity**
Oliver Demmer, Andreas O. Frank, Franz Hagn, Margret Schottelius, Luciana Marinelli,
Sandro Cosconati, Ruth Brack-Werner, Stephan Kremb, Hans-Jꢀrgen Wester, and Horst Kessler*
The chemokine receptor subtype CXCR4 belongs to the G-
protein coupled receptors (GPCRs) and is, together with its
natural ligand CXCL12 (or SDF-1), a central part of the
signaling system in the human body. Its functions range from
stem-cell trafficking during embryogenesis, through cardio-
vascular, hematopoietic, and brain development, to signaling
in the nervous and immune system.[1–6] Furthermore, CXCR4
is one of two major coreceptors used by the human
immunodeficiency virus (HIV) for cell entry and CXCR4-
using viruses are critical for the pathogenesis of AIDS.[7,8]
Hence, CXCR4 represents a valuable therapeutic option for
multiple diseases, such as inflammation, cancer,[9] and HIV/
AIDS.[10] The recent approval of the CXCR4 antagonist
AMD3100 (Mozobil) as a drug for stem-cell mobilization
paves the way for development of further compounds that
target CXCR4 related diseases.[1,11] However at present, none
of the FDA-approved anti-HIV drugs target the CXCR4
receptor.
One of the most interesting classes of CXCR4 antagonists
is derived from the naturally occurring bicyclic peptide
polyphemusin II which was modified in a stepwise fashion
into monocyclic T140.[12] The monocyclic T140 and its
derivatives are inverse agonists and therefore additionally
offer the advantage of selectivity towards CXCR4 over other
CXCR4 antagonists which function as partial agonists, for
example, AMD3100.[13,14] In our efforts to develop high-
affinity CXCR4 ligands as suitable probes for molecular
imaging[15–17] we extended our studies through ligand-based
design using conformational considerations and structure–
activity relationships (SAR). Herein we describe CXCR4
antagonists with picomolar affinity, their binding mode, and
their capacity to inhibit the HIV infection of cells.
The pioneering work of Fujii et al. demonstrated that the
peptidic CXCR4 antagonist T140 can be downsized from
14 amino acids into a head-to-tail cyclized pentapeptide with
a binding affinity (IC50) of 8 nm (FC131; 1a).[18] This peptide
was further modified into the N-methylated analogue cyclo(-
d-Tyr1-d-[NMe]Arg2-Arg3-Nal4-Gly5-)
(Nal =l-3-(2-naph-
thyl)alanine) 1b resulting in even higher affinity (IC50
=
3 nm, Figure 1).[19] This is the highest CXCR4 binding affinity
known to date for compounds with the cyclopentapeptide
scaffold.
[*] Dr. O. Demmer, Dr. A. O. Frank, Dr. F. Hagn, Prof. Dr. H. Kessler
Institute for Advanced Study at the Department Chemie
Technische Universitꢀt Mꢁnchen
Lichtenbergstrasse 4, 85748 Garching (Germany)
and
Chemistry Department, Faculty of Science
King Abdulaziz University
P.O. Box 80203, Jeddah 21589 (Saudi Arabia)
E-mail: kessler@tum.de
Dr. M. Schottelius, Prof. Dr. H.-J. Wester
Lehrstuhl fꢁr Pharmazeutische Radiochemie
Garching (Germany)
Prof. Dr. L. Marinelli
Dipartimento di Chimica Farmaceutica e Tossicologica
Universitꢂ di Napoli “Federico II”, Napoli (Italy)
Dr. S. Cosconati
Dipartimento di Scienze Ambientali
Seconda Universitꢂ di Napoli, Caserta (Italy)
Figure 1. Constitutionally similar cyclic pentapeptides exhibiting
different conformational behavior because of the introduction of an
N-methyl group and different chirality in position 2.
Prof. Dr. R. Brack-Werner, Dr. S. Kremb
Helmholtz Zentrum Mꢁnchen
Institute of Virology Neuherberg/Mꢁnchen (Germany)
Despite its high affinity, the NMR spectrum of this N-
methylated peptide (1b) exhibits two conformations in slow
equilibrium. The major one exhibits a conformation similar to
1a and was assumed by Ueda et al.[19] to be the bioactive
conformation. We determined the two conformations of 1c
(IC50 = 6 Æ 1 nm) in water by NMR spectroscopy to obtain
detailed insight into the different binding modes with addi-
tional help of molecular modeling. For these experiments we
used the ornithine2 (Orn2) derivative instead of Arg2 as it was
[**] We thank M. Wolff and B. Cordes for technical assistance and E.
Gourni for the help in the cell binding assay. This work was
supported by the Center of Integrated Protein Science Munich
(CIPS). Financial support by the DFG (SFB824, Subproject B5) is
acknowledged. The representation of the HI virus in the Table of
Contents graphic was originally created by the US National Institute
of Health (Permission: PD-USGov-HHS-NIH)
Supporting information for this article is available on the WWW
Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2012, 51, 1 – 5
ꢀ 2012 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim
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