The discovery of a new series of potent hepatitis C virus (HCV) NS5A inhibitors containing biaryl sulfone or sulfate cores is reported. Structure-activity relationship (SAR) studies on inhibitors containing various substitution patterns of the sulfate or sulfone core structure established that m-,m'- substituted biaryl sulfate core-based inhibitors containing an amide moiety (compound 20) or an imidazole moiety (compound 24) showed extremely high potency. Compound 20 demonstrated double-digit pM potencies against both genotype 1b (GT-1b) and 2a (GT-2a). Compound 24 also exhibited double-digit pM potencies against GT-1b and sub nM potencies against GT-2a. Furthermore, compounds 20 and 24 exhibited no cardiotoxicity in an hERG ligand binding assay and showed acceptable plasma stability and no mutagenic potential in the Ames test. In addition, these compounds showed distinctive additive effects in combination treatment with the NS5B targeting drug sofosbuvir (Sovaldi®). The results of this study showed that the compounds 20 and 24 could be effective HCV inhibitors.
Keywords: Biaryl sulfate; HCV; NS5A inhibitor; Structure-activity relationship.
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