Over the last years numerous studies gave insights into

Over the last 15 years, numerous studies gave insights into sGC activation and binding of activators: Photoaffinity labelling studies with cinaciguat suggested the N-terminus of the β1 subunit as target region for this new drug [17]. Schmidt et al. identified the amino acids tyrosine 135, serine 137 and arginine 139 of the β1 subunit to be crucially important for binding of the heme moiety and activation of sGC by cinaciguat and found the aliphatic carboxylate group of cinaciguat to be obligatory for this interaction [22], [23]. Besides the hydrophilic butyl carboxylic acid, Rekowski et al. identified the lipophilic aromatic part of cinaciguat as second main critical feature for the binding to the HNOX domain [24]. Novel sGC activators are monocarboxylic Gabapentin sale derivatives which exhibit widely varying chemical structures. Besides the lipophilic tail, they contain only one carboxylic acid for the described key interactions [25], [26], [27]. The first monocarboxylic acid derivatives have been characterised for glaucoma and fibrotic disease in clinical studies [26], [27], [28], [29]. In the current study, we investigate the effects of a new monocarboxylic sGC activator BR 11257 on the sGC isoform α1/β1 in vitro and in vivo. While the dicarboxylic activators cinaciguat and BAY 60-2770 were recently shown to have a considerable stabilising effect [30], the monocarboxylic acid BR11257 showed no stabilising effect in thermal shift measurements. We hypothesize that the missing second carboxylic acid in BR 11257 is the key interaction partner for thermostabilisation. Activity measurements with purified enzyme indicated lower sGC fold-activation for BR11257 in comparison to BAY 60-2770. Based on our results we suggest that the new drug BR 11257 is an sGC activator that exhibits a partial agonist profile.
Materials and methods
Results
Discussion Recent studies indicated a stable insertion of sGC activators from the dicarboxylic acid type during de novo synthesis, which was potentially connected to high rates of hypotension in clinical studies with cinaciguat [21], [35], [43]. The carboxylic acids largely participate in the binding of activators into the HNOX domain, as they mimic the interaction of the heme propionate side chains in the enzyme. According to Rekowski et al., the two main critical features for the binding of cinaciguat to the HNOX domain are the hydrophilic butyl carboxylic acid and a lipophilic aromatic part (Fig. 9) [24]. The new drug BR 11257 contains only one carboxylic acid moiety and the behaviour of this new monocarboxylic acid BR11257 was compared with the dicarboxylic acid BAY 60-2770. We speculated that the absence of one carboxylic acid might entail the absence of the stable co-translational insertion. Although a co-translational insertion was also observed for BR11257, this effect was not as marked as for BAY 60-2770: Our results indicate a less complete displacement of heme in comparison to BAY 60-2770 (Fig. 5). Comparison of BR 11257-inserted enzyme and enzyme exposed to BR 11257 during activity measurements indicated similar ratios of BR 11257-containing versus BR 11257-free enzymes. This may indicate that the fraction of the regular enzyme loosing heme during purification is similar to the fraction of the “BR 11257-inserted” enzyme loosing BR11257 during purification. The additional drug effect on BR11257-inserted enzyme, which was absent in BAY 60-2770-inserted enzyme (Figs. 6B and 8), indicate a faster off-kinetic of BR 11257 in comparison to BAY 60-2770. Animal data support this idea: In anaesthetised rats, 30 µg/kg BAY 60-2770 plus ODQ induced an extended systemic blood pressure response which was maintained for periods of over 120 min [46]. In contrast, in our analogous animal experiments with 30 µg/kg BR11257 plus ODQ, mean arterial blood pressure was fully restored after 60 min (see Fig. 2). This difference in drug action is not due to the pharmacokinetic profile of the drugs in the animals because the half life in rats of BR 11257 is significantly longer (>3 h) compared to the half life of BAY 60-2770 (<1 h, only).