The use of an interleukin β antibody is currently being investigated in the clinic for the treatment of acne, a dermatological disorder affecting 650M persons globally. Inhibiting the protease responsible for the cleavage of inactive pro-IL1β into active IL-1β, caspase-1, could be an alternative small molecule approach. This report describes the discovery of uracil 20, a potent (38 nM in THP1 cells assay) caspase-1 inhibitor for the topical treatment of inflammatory acne. The uracil series was designed according to a published caspase-1 pharmacophore model involving a reactive warhead in P1 for covalent reversible inhibition and an aryl moiety in P4 for selectivity against the apoptotic caspases. Reversibility was assessed in an enzymatic dilution assay or by using different substrate concentrations. In addition to classical structure–activity-relationship exploration, topical administration challenges such as phototoxicity, organic and aqueous solubility, chemical stability in solution, and skin metabolic stability are discussed and successfully resolved.

中文翻译：

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局部使用胱天蛋白酶1抑制剂治疗炎性痤疮的合理药物设计

目前正在临床上研究白介素β抗体在治疗痤疮中的应用，痤疮是一种痤疮，一种皮肤病，全球范围内影响着6.5亿人。抑制负责将非活性前IL1β裂解为活性IL-1β的蛋白酶caspase-1，可能是另一种小分子方法。该报告描述了尿嘧啶20的发现，一种有效的caspase-1抑制剂（在THP1细胞分析中为38 nM），用于局部治疗炎性痤疮。根据已公开的胱天蛋白酶-1药效团模型设计尿嘧啶系列，该模型涉及P1中的反应性战斗部对共价可逆抑制，P4中的芳基部分对细胞凋亡的胱天蛋白酶的选择性。可逆性通过酶稀释测定法或通过使用不同的底物浓度进行评估。除了经典的结构-活性-关系探索之外，还讨论并成功解决了局部给药方面的挑战，例如光毒性，有机和水溶解度，溶液中的化学稳定性以及皮肤代谢稳定性。