Current endocrine therapeutics for the estrogen-dependent disease endometriosis often lead to considerable side-effects as they act by reducing estrogen action systemically. A more recent approach takes advantage of the fact that the weak estrogen estrone (E1) which is abundant in the plasma, is activated in the target cell to the highly estrogenic estradiol (E2) by 17β-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase type 1 (17β-HSD1). 17β-HSD1 is overexpressed in endometriosis and thus a promising target for the treatment of this disease, with the prospect of less target-associated side-effects. Potent inhibitors from the class of bicyclic substituted hydroxyphenylmethanones with sulfonamide moiety recently described by us suffered from high molecular weight and low selectivity over 17βHSD2, the physiological adversary of 17β-HSD1. We describe the structural optimizations leading to the discovery of (5-(3,5-dichloro-4-methoxyphenyl)thiophen-2-yl)(2,6-difluoro-3-hydroxyphenyl)methanone 20, which displayed a sub-nanomolar IC50 towards 17β-HSD1 as well as high selectivity over the type 2 enzyme, the estrogen receptors α and β and a range of hepatic CYP enzymes. The compound did neither show cellular toxicity, nor PXR activation nor mutagenicity in the AMES II assay. Additional favourable pharmacokinetic properties (rat) make 20 a suitable candidate for proof-of-principle studies using xenotransplanted immunodeficient rats.
Keywords: 17β-Hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase type 1; Enzyme inhibitor; Estrogen-dependent disease; Intracrinology; Steroidogenic enzymes.
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