Drug-like property-driven optimization of 4-substituted 1,5-diarylanilines as potent HIV-1 non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors against rilpivirine-resistant mutant virus

On the basis of our prior structure-activity relationship (SAR) results, our current lead optimization of 1,5-diarylanilines (DAANs) focused on the 4-substituent (R(1)) on the central phenyl ring as a modifiable position related simultaneously to improved drug resistance profiles and drug-like properties. Newly synthesized p-cyanovinyl-DAANs (8a–8g) with different R(1) side chains plus prior active p-cyanoethyl-DAANs (4a–4c) were evaluated not only for anti-HIV potency against both wild-type HIV virus and rilpivirine-resistant (E138K, E138K+M184I) viral replication, but also for multiple drug-like properties, including aqueous solubility, lipophilicity, and metabolic stability in human liver microsomes and human plasma. This study revealed that both ester and amide R(1) substituents led to low nanomolar anti-HIV potency against wild-type and rilpivirine-resistant viral strains (E138K-resistance fold changes < 3). The N-substituted amide-R(1) side chains were superior to ester-R(1) likely due to improved aqueous solubility, lipophilicity, and higher metabolic stability in vitro. Thus, three amide-DAANs 8e, 4a, and 4b were identified with high potency against wild-type and rilpivirine-resistant viral strains and multiple desirable drug-like properties.