Structure-activity relationship studies of the aromatic positions in cyclopentapeptide CXCR4 antagonists

The cyclopentapeptide CXCR4 antagonist FC131 (cyclo(-Arg(1)-Arg(2)-2-Nal(3)-Gly(4)-D-Tyr(5)-), 2; 2-Nal = 3-(2-naphthyl)alanine) represents an excellent starting point for development of novel drug-like ligands with therapeutic potential in HIV, cancer, stem-cell mobilization, inflammation, and autoimmune diseases. While the structure-activity relationships for Arg(1), Arg(2), and Gly(4) are well established, less is understood about the roles of the aromatic residues 2-Nal(3) and D-Tyr(5). Here we report further structure-activity relationship studies of these two positions, which showed that (i) the distal aromatic ring of the 2-Nal(3) side chain is required in order to maintain high potency and (ii) replacement of D-Tyr(5) with conformationally constrained analogues results in significantly reduced activity. However, a simplified analogue that contained Gly instead of D-Tyr(5) was only 13-fold less potent than 2, which means that the D-Tyr(5) side chain is dispensable. These findings were rationalized based on molecular docking, and the collective structure-activity data for the cyclopentapeptides suggest that appropriately designed Arg(2)-2-Nal(3) dipeptidomimetics have potential as CXCR4 antagonists.