Mechanism-based inhibition of yeast alpha-glucosidase and human pancreatic alpha-amylase by a new class of inhibitors. 2-Deoxy-2,2-difluoro-alpha-glycosides.

2-Deoxy-2,2-difluoroglycosides are a new class of mechanism-based inhibitors of alpha-glycosidases, which function via the accumulation of a stable difluoroglycosyl-enzyme intermediate. Two members of this new class of inhibitor have been synthesized and kinetic studies performed with their target glycosidases. Thus 2,4,6-trinitrophenyl 2-deoxy-2,2-difluoro-alpha-glucoside is shown to inactivate yeast alpha-glucosidase with a second order rate constant of ki/Ki = 0.25 min-1 mM-1. The equivalent difluoromaltoside inactivates human pancreatic alpha-amylase with ki/Ki = 0.0073 min-1 mM-1. Competitive inhibitors protect the enzyme against inactivation in each case, showing reaction to occur at the active site. A burst of release of one equivalent of trinitrophenolate observed upon inactivation of human pancreatic alpha-amylase proves the required 1:1 stoichiometry. These are the first mechanism-based inhibitors of this class to be described, and the first mechanism-based inhibitors of any sort for the medically important alpha-amylase. In addition to having potential as therapeutics, compounds of this class should prove useful in subsequent structural and mechanistic studies of these enzymes.