Synthesis, Structure-Activity Relationships, and In Vivo Evaluation of Novel Tetrahydropyran-Based Thiodisaccharide Mimics as Galectin-3 Inhibitors.
Xu, L., Hartz, R.A., Beno, B.R., Ghosh, K., Shukla, J.K., Kumar, A., Patel, D., Kalidindi, N., Lemos, N., Gautam, S.S., Kumar, A., Ellsworth, B.A., Shah, D., Sale, H., Cheng, D., Regueiro-Ren, A.(2021) J Med Chem 64: 6634-6655
- PubMed: 33988358 
- DOI: https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jmedchem.0c02001
- Primary Citation of Related Structures:  
7DF5, 7DF6 - PubMed Abstract: 
Galectin-3 is a member of a family of β-galactoside-binding proteins. A substantial body of literature reports that galectin-3 plays important roles in cancer, inflammation, and fibrosis. Small-molecule galectin-3 inhibitors, which are generally lactose or galactose-based derivatives, have the potential to be valuable disease-modifying agents. In our efforts to identify novel galectin-3 disaccharide mimics to improve drug-like properties, we found that one of the monosaccharide subunits can be replaced with a suitably functionalized tetrahydropyran ring. Optimization of the structure-activity relationships around the tetrahydropyran-based scaffold led to the discovery of potent galectin-3 inhibitors. Compounds 36 , 40 , and 45 were selected for further in vivo evaluation. The synthesis, structure-activity relationships, and in vivo evaluation of novel tetrahydropyran-based galectin-3 inhibitors are described.
Organizational Affiliation: 
Department of Small Molecule Drug Discovery, Bristol Myers Squibb Company, Research and Development, P.O. Box 5400, Princeton, New Jersey 08543, United States.