부산대학교 도서관

During a medicinal chemistry campaign to identify inhibitors of the hepatitis C virus nonstructural protein 5B (RNA-dependent RNA polymerase), a bicyclo[1.1.1]pentane was introduced into the chemical scaffold to improve metabolic stability. The inhibitors bearing this feature, compound 1 [5-(3-(bicyclo[1.1.1]pentan-1-ylcarbamoyl)-4-fluorophenyl)-2-(4-fluorophenyl)-N-methyl-6-(3,3,3-trifluoropropyl)furo[2,3-b]pyridine-3-carboxamide] and compound 2 [5-(3-(bicyclo[1.1.1]pentan-1-ylcarbamoyl)phenyl)-2-(4-fluorophenyl)-N-methyl-6-(3,3,3-trifluoropropyl)furo[2,3-b]pyridine-3-carboxamide], exhibited low turnover in incubations with liver S9 or hepatocytes (rat, human), with hydroxylation of the bicyclic moiety being the only metabolic pathway observed. In subsequent disposition studies using bile duct–cannulated rats, the metabolite profiles of bile samples revealed, in addition to multiple products of bicyclopentane oxidation, unexpected metabolites characterized by molecular masses that were 181 Da greater than those of compound 1 or 2. Further liquid chromatography/multiple-stage mass spectrometry and nuclear magnetic resonance analysis of the isolated metabolite of compound 1 demonstrated the presence of a phosphocholine (POPC) moiety bound to the methine carbon of the bicyclic moiety through an ester bond. The POPC conjugate of the nonstructural protein 5B inhibitors was assumed to result from two sequential reactions: hydroxylation of the bicyclic methine to a tertiary alcohol and addition of POPC by cytidine-diphosphocholine:1,2-diacylglycerol cholinephosphotransferase, an enzyme responsible for the final step in the biosynthesis of phosphatidylcholine. However, this pathway could not be recapitulated using cytidine-diphosphocholine–supplemented liver S9 or hepatocytes because of inadequate formation of the hydroxylation product in vitro. The observation of this unexpected pathway prompted concerns about the possibility that compounds 1 and 2 might interfere with routine phospholipid synthesis. These results demonstrate the participation in xenobiotic metabolism of a process whose function is ordinarily limited to the synthesis of endogenous compounds.