Inhibitors of protein synthesis. 4. Studies on the structure-activity relationship of gougerotin and some of its analogs.

Seventeen structural analogs of gougerotin have been compared with the parent compound as inhibitors of the growh of E. coli B and as inhibitors of N-acetylphenylalanylpuromycin formation. The analogs comprise compounds with (1) an intact sarcosyl-D-seryl moiety and modifications at various positions of the carbohydrate moiety, (2) compounds which lack the peptidyl residue, and (3) compounds in which the sarcosyl-D-seryl moiety has been replaced by other aminoacyl or peptidyl moieties and in which various sites in the carbohydrate moiety have been modified in addition. These comparisons revealed that (1) the 3'-hydroxyl group makes a strong contribution to inhibitory activity, (2) the introduction of a double bond between the 2' and 3' positions of the carbohydrate moiety causes a marked decrease in activity; however, if in addition the sarcosyl-D-seryl moiety is replaced by the epsilon-N-methyl-beta-L-arginyl side chain, full activity is restored, (3) there is a marked degree of stereospecificity around the alpha carbon of the seryl moiety (replacement of the sarcosyl-D-seryl residue with the sarcosyl-L-seryl residue results in greatly reduced activity), and (4) replacement of the carboxamide group at position 5' with a hydroxymethyl function resulsts in reduced activity which is further decreased by alterations in the sarcosyl-D-seryl moiety. These alterations include (a) replacement of the D-seryl residue of the sarcosyl-D-seryl moiety by the D-alanyl or the D-phenylalanyl residues and (b) replacement of the whole sarcosyl-D-seryl side chain by the D-seryl, D-alanyl, D-phenylalanyl, p-methoxy-D-phenylalanyl, or p-methoxy-L-phenylalanyl moieties; the replacement of the sarcosyl-D-seryl side chain with the various aminoacyl residues did not lead to acceptor (puromycin-like) activity with N-Ac-Phe-tRNA as the donor.