17β-HSD14 belongs to the SDR family and oxidizes the hydroxyl group at position 17 of estradiol and 5-androstenediol using NAD as cofactor. The goal of this study was to identify and optimize 17β-HSD14 nonsteroidal inhibitors as well as to disclose their structure-activity relationship. In a first screen, a library of 17β-HSD1 and 17β-HSD2 inhibitors, selected with respect to scaffold diversity, was tested for 17β-HSD14 inhibition. The most interesting hit was taken as starting point for chemical modification applying a ligand-based approach. The designed compounds were synthesized and tested for 17β-HSD14 inhibitory activity. The two best inhibitors identified in this study have a very high affinity to the enzyme with a K equal to 7 nM. The strong affinity of these inhibitors to the enzyme active site could be explained by crystallographic structure analysis, which highlighted the role of an extended H-bonding network in the stabilization process. The selectivity of the most potent compounds with respect to 17β-HSD1 and 17β-HSD2 is also addressed.
17β-HSD14 is a SDR enzyme able to oxidize estradiol and 5-androstenediol using NAD(+). We determined the crystal structure of this human enzyme as the holo form and as ternary complexes with estrone and with the first potent, nonsteroidal inhibitor. The structures reveal a conical, rather large and lipophilic binding site and are the starting point for structure-based inhibitor design. The two natural variants (S205 and T205) were characterized and adopt a similar structure.
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