Tuning of β-glucosidase and α-galactosidase inhibition by generation and in situ screening of a library of pyrrolidine-triazole hybrid molecules

The preliminary screening of two libraries of epimeric (pyrrolidin-2-yl)triazoles (14a-s and 22a-s), generated via click chemistry, allowed the rapid identification of four α-galactosidase (coffee beans) inhibitors (22b,k,p,r) and two β-glucosidase (almond) inhibitors (14b,f) in the low μM range. The additional biological analysis of 14b,f towards β-glucocerebrosidase (human lysosomal β-glucosidase), as target enzyme for Gaucher disease, showed a good correlation with the inhibition results obtained for the plant (almond) enzyme. Surprisingly, although these compounds showed inhibition towards β-glucocerebrosidase as acid hydrolase, they did not inhibit bovine liver β-glucosidase as neutral hydrolase. In contrast to what was observed for β-glucosidase inhibition, the coffee bean α-galactosidase inhibitors of the epimeric library (22b,k,p,r) only showed weak inhibition towards human lysosomal α-galactosidase.