Brain delivery of HIV protease inhibitors.

To overcome the problems of peptidomimetic drug delivery to the specific organs, the use of dihydropyridine <--> pyridinium chemical delivery systems to deliver peptides to the brain is considered in this work. An HIV protease inhibitor lead compound; KNI 279 was selected for the study. The N-alkylated dihydroisoquinoline derivatives of KNI-279 were synthesized and tested for their ability to be oxidized by brain homogenate and showed good results with reasonable half-life times specially for the N-alkoxycarbonyl-methyl derivative 8. The in-vivo distribution of compound 8 proved the brain delivery and locked in property of HIV PR inhibitors in the brain. All the prepared compounds (both quaternary and dihydro derivatives) showed between 51 and 86 % HIV PR inhibitory activity compared to the parent compound.