The innate immune system represents the first line of defence against infections, playing a key role in the recognition of pathogen-associated molecular patterns (PAMP-) and damage-associated molecular patterns (DAMP-). This recognition is mediated by pattern recognition receptors (PRR-), among which the Toll-like receptors (TLR) are the most important and most extensively studied. TLR8 is localized on the endosomal membrane and is primarily activated by single-stranded RNA. Due to its association with the development of various inflammatory and autoimmune diseases, TLR8 represents an attractive target for the development of selective antagonists that could regulate excessive inflammatory responses.
As part of this master's thesis, we synthesized 15 compounds with potential antagonistic activity against TLR8, based on a hit compound 10 (lit.), which was identified by Matziol et al. through virtual screening. Based on this compound, we designed new derivatives of 3,5-dimethylisoxazole. In the first step, the 3,5-dimethylisoxazole moiety was attached to the methyl ester of 3-nitro- and 3-chloro-4-hydroxybenzoic acid. In the second step, base-catalyzed hydrolysis of the ester was performed, followed by optimization of the coupling procedure in the third step to synthesize various amides from 4-aminopiperidine derivatives. For compounds where 4-aminopiperidine with a Boc protecting group was introduced, deprotection was carried out in the fourth step, and in the fifth step, allyl bromide was attached to the secondary amino group.
The final compounds were characterized using various analytical techniques and biochemically evaluated on the HEK-Blue™ hTLR8 cell line to determine their TLR8 antagonist activity and cytotoxicity. The introduction of a chloro substituent preserved antagonistic activity, whereas the introduction of a nitro group resulted in a complete loss of activity. The test results showed that four chloro-substituted compounds (6, 8, 10, 21) exhibited IC50 values in the nanomolar range and are potent TLR8 antagonists, with compound 10 being the most active with IC50 value of 0.68 µM. The cytotoxicity test showed that the final cell viability for the most potent compounds was appropriate except for compound 21. With our results, we expanded the structure-activity relationships of this class of compounds, and the data obtained provide an excellent starting point for further rational design of TLR8 antagonists.
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