Crystal structure of a new benzoic acid inhibitor of influenza neuraminidase bound with a new tilt induced by overpacking subsite C6

Inhibitor 2 {4-[2,2-bis(hydroxymethyl)-5-oxo-pyrrolidin-1-yl]-3-[(dipropylamino)methyl)]benzoic acid} was soaked into crystals of neuraminidase of A/tern/Australia/G70c/75 (N9), and the structure refined with 1.55？？ X-ray data. The benzene ring of the inhibitor tilted 8.9° compared to the previous compound (1), and the number of contacts, including hydrogen bonds, increased. However, the IC50 for compound 2 remained in the low micromolar range, likely because one propyl group was disordered. In this high-resolution structure of NA isolated from virus grown in chicken eggs, we found electron density for additional sugar units on the N-linked glycans compared to previous neuraminidase structures. In particular, seven mannoses and two N-acetylglucosamines are visible in the glycan attached to Asn200. This long, branched high-mannose glycan makes significant contacts with the neighboring subunit.We designed inhibitor 2 with an extended substituent at C4-corresponding to C6 of sialic acid-to increase the contact surface in the C6-subsite and to force the benzene ring to tilt to maximize these interactions while retaining the interactions of the carboxylate and the pyrolidinone substituents. The crystal structure at 1.55？？ showed that we partially succeeded in that the ring in 2 is tilted relative to 1 and the number of contacts increased, but one hydrophobic branch makes no contacts, perhaps explaining why the IC50 did not decrease. Future design efforts will include branches of unequal length so that both branches may be accommodated in the C6-subsite without conformational disorder. The high-mannose glycan attached to Asn200 makes several inter-subunit contacts and appears to stabilize the tetramer.Influenza A viruses display two membrane-anchored glycoproteins, hemagglutinin (HA) and neuraminidase (NA). HA mediates attachment of the virus to sialic acid receptors on host cells to initiate virus infection. After virus replication, NA removes sialic acid residues from v