De novo design of 7-aminocoumarin derivatives as novel falcipain-3 inhibitors

The availability of the crystal structure of falcipain-3, knowledge of the peptides carrying the 7-aminocoumarin moiety as falcipain-3 ligands/substrates, and a need for new antimalarial agents stimulated us to look at the possibility of finding some novel falcipain-3 inhibitors. In this paper, we report the effect of substitution at the 7-amino position of the coumarin nucleus on the inhibition of falcipain-3, which is a well-validated antimalarial target. The de novo drug design was assisted by QSAR studies that shed light on the binding patterns of known and the newly designed inhibitors, thus taking this discovery process to the next level.