Inhibition of S-ribosylhomocysteinase (LuxS) by substrate analogues modified at the ribosyl C-3 position

S-ribosylhomocysteinase (LuxS) catalyzes the cleavage of the thioether bond of S-ribosylhomocysteine (SRH) to produce homocysteine and 4,5-dihydroxy-2,3-pentanedione (DPD), which is the precursor of type 2 autoinducer for bacterial cell-cell communication. In this work, we have synthesized several SRH analogues modified at the ribose C3 position as potential inhibitors of LuxS. While removal or methylation of the C3-OH resulted in simple competitive inhibitors of moderate potency, inversion of the C3 stereochemistry or substitution of fluorine for C3-OH resulted in slow-binding inhibitors of improved potency. The most potent inhibitor showed a K(I)(*) value of 0.43 microM.