Rational Design, Synthesis and Preliminary Structure-Activity Relationships of α-Substituted-2-Phenylcyclopropane Carboxylic Acids as Inhibitors of Salmonella Typhimurium O-Acetylserine Sulfhydrylase

Cysteine is a building block for several biomolecules that are crucial for living organisms. The last step of cysteine biosynthesis is catalyzed by O-acetylserine sulfydrylase (OASS)., a highly conserved pyridoxal S'-phosphate (PLP)-dependent enzyme, present in different isoforms in bacteria, plants, and nematodes, but absent in mammals. Beside the biosynthesis of cysteine, OASS exerts a series of "moonlighting" activities in bacteria, such as transcriptional regulation, contact-dependent growth inhibition, swarming motility, and induction of antibiotic resistance. Therefore, the discovery of molecules capable of inhibiting OASS would be a valuable tool to unravel how this protein affects the physiology of unicellular organisms. As a continuation of our efforts toward the synthesis of OASS inhibitors, in this work we have used a combination of computational and spectroscopic approaches to rationally design) synthesize, and test a series of substituted 2-phenylcyclopropane carboxylic acids that bind to the two S. typhymurium OASS isoforms at nanomolar concentrations.