Exploration of a series of 5-arylidene-2-thioxoimidazolidin-4-ones as inhibitors of the cytolytic protein perforin

Abstract

A series of novel 5-arylidene-2-thioxoimidazolidin-4-ones were investigated as inhibitors of the lymphocyte-expressed pore-forming protein perforin. Structure-activity relationships were explored through variation of an isoindolinone or 3,4-dihydroisoquinolinone subunit on a fixed 2-thioxoimidazolidin-4-one/thiophene core. The ability of the resulting compounds to inhibit the lytic activity of both isolated perforin protein and perforin delivered in situ by natural killer cells was determined. A number of compounds showed excellent activity at concentrations that were nontoxic to the killer cells, and several were a significant improvement on previous classes of inhibitors, being substantial..