Abstract
The recent global coronavirus pandemic highlighted the ever-present threat of respiratory virus outbreaks and the consequent need for ongoing research into antiviral therapy. To this end, structural analogues of the guanidinium-based drug camostat mesylate have been synthesised to probe their potential inhibition of Transmembrane Serine Protease 2 (TMPRSS2), a human protease that is essential for infection by many respiratory viruses, including Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). Our in vitro fluorescence-based protease assays and supporting computational docking studies suggest that C-terminal camostat analogues retain TMPRSS2 inhibition potencies (IC(50) = 1-3 nM, BE = -6.6 to -7.0 kcal/mol) that match or exceed that of the parent drug. Analogues 1c and 1d emerge as lead candidates in this regard, thereby validating the rationale behind C-terminal structural modifications and highlighting these derivatives as promising scaffolds for the future development of targeted antiviral therapeutics. Replacement of camostat's ester functionality with peptide linkages largely preserves non-covalent binding but disrupts in vitro protease inhibition, findings consistent with the parent drug's known role as an acylating suicide inhibitor. Docking studies confirm that the replacement of aromatic residues with flexible, equivalent-length alkyl chains is detrimental to drug binding. These function and binding data offer new directions for the synthesis of further analogues of camostat and of other guanidinium-based protease inhibitors that have yet to be refined via structure-activity relationship studies. Further investigation will support tailoring this class of drugs for repurposing in antiviral therapy.