Computer-aided analysis and design of phosphonic and phosphinic enzyme inhibitors as potential drugs and agrochemicals

A structure-based approach to design potent and selective inhibitors is an important component of the modern drug development process. As the altered activity of certain enzymes is associated with variety of pathologies, the design and synthesis of inhibitors for enzymes playing the key role in pathogenesis may result in potential therapeutic agents. Nowadays, the development of new inhibitors is often based on computer assisted design process. Although three-dimensional structure of the enzyme and mechanism of enzymatic reaction are most important for accurate design, the mode of action of already known lead compounds as well as their characteristic structural features also have to be considered. This review summarises the current progress in computer-aided design of phosphonic and phosphinic acids and their short peptides as inhibitors of chosen enzymes of medical and agrochemical importance. Despite the mechanism of inhibitory activity two approaches for their design are presented. First one relies on the use of the crystal structure of enzymes as well as enzymes complexed with some ligands for structure-based search for novel inhibitory structures. Second enables prediction of activity of new enzyme groups of inhibitors based on the building-up relation of observed activity to specific structural features of sets of compounds of known biological activity.