Discovery of a series of novel compounds with moderate anti-hepatitis C virus NS3 protease activity in vitro

The hepatitis C virus (HCV) NS3/4A protease that plays an important role in the viral life cycle has been proven to be an excellent target for the discovery of anti-HCV drugs. Enlightened by some P2-triazole and amide compounds, which had been found as HCV NS3 protease inhibitors, we designed and synthesized a series of novel compounds by incorporating different amino acid residues in P1/P1′ and P3/P3′ position to develop novel antiviral agents. The result of enzyme inhibition assay indicated that all the designed compounds showed moderate anti-HCV NS3 protease activity. On the basis of the biological result, a detailed structure–activity relationship (SAR) was derived and discussed.