(5S)-5-Benzylswainsonines as potent and selective inhibitors of Golgi α-mannosidase II: synthesis, enzyme evaluation and molecular modelling.

Development of novel anti-cancer therapeutics based on Golgi α-mannosidase II (GMII) inhibition is considerably impeded by an undesired co-inhibition of lysosomal α-mannosidase leading to severe side-effects. In this contribution, we describe a fully stereoselective synthesis of (5S)-5-[4-(halo)benzyl]swainsonines as highly potent and selective inhibitors of GMII. The synthesis starts from a previously reported aldehyde readily available from l-ribose, and the key features include an intramolecular reductive amination with substrate-controlled stereoselectivity and a late-stage derivatisation of the benzyl group via ipso-substitution. These novel swainsonine analogues were found to be nanomolar inhibitors of the Golgi-type α-mannosidase AMAN-2 (K = 23-75 nM) with excellent selectivity (selectivity index = 205-870) over the lysosomal-type Jack bean α-mannosidase. Finally, molecular docking and pK calculations were performed to provide more insight into the structure of the inhibitor:enzyme complexes, and a pair interaction energy analysis (FMO-PIEDA) was carried out to rationalise the observed potency and selectivity of the inhibitors.