Novel protease inhibitors (PIs) containing macrocyclic components and 3(R),3a(S),6a(R)-bis-tetrahydrofuranylurethane that are potent against multi-PI-resistant HIV-1 variants in vitro.

Natural products with macrocyclic structural features often display intriguing biological properties. Molecular design incorporating macrocycles may lead to molecules with unique protein-ligand interactions. We generated novel human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) protease inhibitors (PIs) containing a macrocycle and bis-tetrahydrofuranylurethane. Four such compounds exerted potent activity against HIV-1LAI and had 50% effective concentrations (EC50s) of as low as 0.002 microM with minimal cytotoxicity. GRL-216 and GRL-286 blocked the replication of HIV-1NL4-3 variants selected by up to 5 microM saquinavir, ritonavir, nelfinavir, lopinavir, or atazanavir; they had EC50s of 0.020 to 0.046 microM and potent activities against six multi-PI-resistant clinical HIV-1 (HIVmPIr) variants with EC50s of 0.027 to 0.089 microM. GRL-216 and -286 also blocked HIV-1 protease dimerization as efficiently as darunavir. When HIV-1NL4-3 was selected by GRL-216, it replicated progressively more poorly and failed to replicate in the presence of >0.26 microM GRL-216, suggesting that the emergence of GRL-216-resistant HIV-1 variants is substantially delayed. At passage 50 with GRL-216 (the HIV isolate selected with GRL-216 at up to 0.16 microM [HIV216-0.16 microM]), HIV-1NL4-3 containing the L10I, L24I, M46L, V82I, and I84V mutations remained relatively sensitive to PIs, including darunavir, with the EC50s being 3- to 8-fold-greater than the EC50 of each drug for HIV-1NL4-3. Interestingly, HIV216-0.16 microM had 10-fold increased sensitivity to tipranavir. Analysis of the protein-ligand X-ray structures of GRL-216 revealed that the macrocycle occupied a greater volume of the binding cavity of protease and formed greater van der Waals interactions with V82 and I84 than darunavir. The present data warrant the further development of GRL-216 as a potential antiviral agent for treating individuals harboring wild-type and/or HIVmPIr.