Discovery of a Silicon-Containing Pan-Genotype Hepatitis C Virus NS5A Inhibitor
Baomin Liu, Kuo Gai, Hui Qin, Jie Wang, Xushi Liu, Yuan Cao, Qin Lu, Dandan Lu, Deyang Chen, Hengqiao Shen, Wei Song, Mei Jia, Xiaojin Wang, Hongjiang Xu, Yinsheng Zhang
Abstract
We describe a study leading to the discovery of compound 11, a pan-genotypic hepatitis C virus (HCV) nonstructural protein 5A (NS5A) inhibitor with excellent potency, metabolic stability, and pharmacokinetics (PK). Compound 11 incorporating a 4-silapiperidine group was discovered by further optimizing our previous lead with a triethylsilyl moiety. It displayed great potency against genotype 1 subtype a (GT1a), -1b, -2a, -3a, -4a, -5a, and -6a with an EC50 range of 0.33–17 pM and improved potency against the resistance-associated variant GT1a_M28T. Pharmacokinetics (PK) study indicated that compound 11 has reasonable PK exposures with a high liver distribution in preclinical animal species (mouse, rat, and dog). The results of a 14 day repeat-dose toxicity study identified the safety of compound 11.