Fangze Cai, Thomas Kampourakis, Brittney A. Klein, and Brian D. Sykes
ACS Medicinal Chemistry Letters 2021
DOI: 10.1021/acsmedchemlett.1c00366Compounds that directly modulate the response of the cardiac sarcomere have potential in the treatment of cardiac disease. While a number of sarcomere activators have been discovered and extensively studied, very few inhibitors have been identified. We report a potent cardiac sarcomere inhibitor, DN-F01, targeting the cardiac muscle thin filament protein troponin complex. Functional studies show that DN-F01 has a strong inhibitory calcium-dependent effect on cardiac myofibrillar ATPase activity with an IC50 value of 11 ± 4 nmol/L. DN-F01 is shown to bind to a cardiac troponin C–troponin I chimera (cChimera) with a KD of ∼50 nM using fluorescence spectroscopy, indicating that troponin is the likely target for DN-F01. NMR titrations of DN-F01 to C35S and A-Cys cChimera show covalent and noncovalent binding of DN-F01 bound to the calcium-saturated cChimera.
