Design, synthesis, and biological evaluation of 2-substituted ethenesulfonic acid ester derivatives as selective PTP1B inhibitors

Fifteen 2-substituted ethenesulfonic acid ester derivatives were designed, synthesized, and evaluated for the inhibitory activities against protein tyrosine phosphatase 1B (PTP1B) and T-Cell protein tyrosine phosphatase (TCPTP). The structural activity relationship (SAR) of these compounds are discussed to clarify the impact of the linker and the optimized tail on the inhibitory activity of PTP1B and selectivity over TCPTP Most of the compounds exhibit excellent inhibitory activities against PTP1B with IC50 values of 1.5-8.9 μM. SAR analysis reveal that the substituents at the hydrophobic tail significantly alter the inhibitory activity against PTP1B and selectivity over TCPTP, e.g. compound 5d showed excellent inhibitory activity to PTP1B with IC50 = 7.8 μM, and ∼6-fold selectivity over TCPTP. Combined with our previous findings, we confirm that the linker length and the substituted hydrophobic tail have decisive influence on the PTP1B inhibitory activity and selectivity.