A library of novel hydroxamic acids targeting the metallo-protease family: design, parallel synthesis and screening

We report here the design and parallel synthesis of 217 compounds based on a malonic-hydroxamic acid template. These compounds are obtained via a two-step solution-phase procedure. The set of diverse building-blocks used makes this strategy suitable for the search of inhibitors of various metallo-proteases and for the investigation of the biological role of new metallo-proteases. As a proof of concept, we screened this library on Neutral Aminopeptidase (APN; EC 3.4.11.2), the prototypal enzyme of the M1 family. Several submicromolar inhibitors were identified.