Novel Peptide Mimetic Inhibitors of Hepatitis C Serine Protease Derived from Isomannide

Abstract

Hepatitis C (HCV) infection is a cause of chronic liver disease such as cirrhosis, carcinoma, or liver failure, and the current therapy is effective in only 50% of patients. Serine proteases, which are present in HCV, are the most studied class of proteolytic enzymes­, and are a primary target in the drug development field. In this paper, we describe the synthesis and biological studies of a novel­ class of peptide mimetic compounds as potential HCV serine protease inhibitors.