The family of nitric oxide synthases (NOS) catalyzes the conversion of l-arginine to l-citrulline
and nitric oxide (NO), an important cellular messenger molecule which has been implicated in
the pathophysiology of septic shock and inflammatory and neurodegenerative disease states.
NOS can be maximally activated by the ubiquitous cofactor, (6R)-5,6,7,8-tetrahydrobiopterin
(H4Bip), and antagonists of H4Bip may be of therapeutic importance to inhibit pathologically
high NO formation. The 4-amino substituted analogue of H4Bip was reported to be a potent
NOS inhibitor. Therefore, we developed a series of novel 4-amino pteridine derivatives, anti-pterins, to pharmacologically target the neuronal isoform of nitric oxide synthase (NOS-I). To
functionally characterize the pterin/anti-pterin interaction and establish a structure−activity
relationship (SAR), we systematically altered the substituents in the 2-, 4-, 5-, 6-, and 7-position
of the pteridine nucleus. Varying the substitution pattern in the 2-, 5-, and 7-position resulted
in no significant inhibitory effect on enzyme activity. In contrast, bulky substituents in the
6-position, such as phenyl, markedly increased the inhibitory potency of the reduced 4-amino-5,6,7,8-tetrahydropteridines, possibly as a consequence of hydrophobic interactions within NOS-I. However, this was not the case for the aromatic 4-amino pteridines. Interestingly, chemical
modification of the 4-amino substituent by dialkyl/diaralkylation together with 6-arylation of
the aromatic 2,4-diamino pteridine resulted in potent and efficacious inhibitors of NOS-I,
suggesting possible hydrophilic and hydrophobic interactions within NOS-I. This SAR agrees
with (a) the recently published crystal structure of the oxygenase domain of the inducible NOS
isoform (NOS-II) and (b) the comparative molecular field analysis of selected NOS-I inhibitors,
which resulted in a 3D-QSAR model of the pterin binding site interactions. Further optimization
should be possible when the full length structure of NOS-I becomes available.