Synthesis and biochemical evaluation of guanidino-alkyl-ribitol derivatives as nucleoside hydrolase inhibitors.

Nucleoside hydrolase (NH) is a key enzyme in the purine salvage pathway. The purine specificity of the IAG-NH from Trypanosoma vivax is at least in part due to cation-pi-stacking interactions. Guanidinium ions can be involved in cation-pi-stacking interactions, therefore a series of guanidino-alkyl-ribitol derivatives were synthesized in order to examine the binding affinity of these compounds towards the target enzyme. The compounds show moderate to good inhibiting activity towards the IAG-NH from T. vivax.