SuFEx click chemistry has been a method for the rapid synthesis of functional molecules with desirable properties. Here, we demonstrated a workflow that allows for in situ synthesis of sulfonamide inhibitors based on SuFEx reaction for high-throughput testing of their cholinesterase activity. According to fragment-based drug discovery (FBDD), sulfonyl fluorides [R-SO2F] with moderate activity were identified as fragment hits, rapidly diversified into 102 analogs in SuFEx reactions, and the sulfonamides were directly screened to yield drug-like inhibitors with 70-fold higher potency (IC50 = 94 nM). Moreover, the improved molecule J8-A34 can ameliorate cognitive function in Aβ1-42-induced mouse model. Since this SuFEx linkage reaction succeeds on picomole scale for direct screening, this methodology can accelerate the development of robust biological probes and drug candidates.
Keywords: Cholinesterase inhibitors; Click chemistry; Drug discovery; High-throughput; SuFEx; Sulfonamide.
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