Design and synthesis of a novel inhibitor of T. Viride chitinase through an in silico target fishing protocol

Abstract In the last ten years, we identified and developed a new therapeutic class of antifungal agents, the macrocyclic amidinoureas. These compounds are active against several Candida species, including clinical isolates resistant to currently available antifungal drugs. The mode of action of these molecules is still unknown. In this work, we developed an in-silico target fishing procedure to identify a possible target for this class of compounds based on shape similarity, inverse docking procedure and consensus score rank-by-rank. Chitinase enzyme emerged as possible target. To confirm this hypothesis a novel macrocyclic derivative has been produced, specifically designed to increase the inhibition of the chitinase. Biological evaluation highlights a stronger enzymatic inhibition for the new derivative, while its antifungal activity drops probably because of pharmacokinetic issues. Collectively, our data suggest that chitinase represent at least one of the main target of macrocyclic amidinoureas.