In this paper, a new series of isatin-sulphonamide based derivatives were designed, synthesised and evaluated as caspase inhibitors. The compounds containing 1-(pyrrolidinyl)sulphonyl and 2-(phenoxymethyl)pyrrolidin-1-yl)sulphonyl substitution at C5 position of isatin core exhibited better results compared to unsubstituted derivatives. According to the results of caspase inhibitory activity, compound 20d showed moderate inhibitory activity against caspase-3 and −7 in vitro compared to Ac-DEVD-CHO (IC₅₀ = 0.016 ± 0.002 μM). Among the studied compounds, some active inhibitors with IC_50s in the range of 2.33–116.91 μM were identified. The activity of compound 20d was rationalised by the molecular modelling studies exhibiting the additional van der Waals interaction of N-phenylacetamide substitution along with efficacious T-shaped π-π and pi-cation interactions. The introduction of compound 20d with good caspase inhibitory activity will help researchers to find more potent agents.

在本文中，设计，合成和评估了一系列新的基于isatin-sulphonamide的衍生物作为胱天蛋白酶抑制剂。与未取代的衍生物相比，在靛红核的C5位上含有1-（吡咯烷基）磺酰基和2-（苯氧基甲基）吡咯烷-1-基）磺酰基取代的化合物表现出更好的结果。根据caspase抑制活性的结果，与Ac-DEVD-CHO相比，化合物20d在体外显示出对caspase-3和-7的中等抑制活性（IC ₅₀ = 0.016±0.002μM）。在研究的化合物中，鉴定出一些活性抑制剂，IC ₅₀值在2.33–116.91μM之间。化合物20d的活性通过分子建模研究使之合理化，该研究展示了N-苯基乙酰胺取代的额外范德华相互作用以及有效的T形π-π和π-阳离子相互作用。具有良好的半胱天冬酶抑制活性的化合物20d的引入将有助于研究人员寻找更有效的药物。