Discovery and development of gastrointestinal lipase inhibitors

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Lipase inhibitor
pancreatic lipase
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enzymes that play an important role in the digestion of dietary fat.[2] Lipase inhibitors are classified in the ATC-classification system as A08AB (peripherally acting antiobesity products).[3]
Numerous compounds have been either isolated from nature, semi-synthesized, or fully synthesized and then screened for their lipase inhibitory activity[4] but the only lipase inhibitor on the market (October 2016) is orlistat (Xenical, Alli).[5] Lipase inhibitors have also shown anticancer activity, by inhibiting fatty acid synthase.[6]

Discovery of lipase inhibitors and their development

Pancreatic lipase inhibitor was originally discovered and isolated from

Hoffmann-La Roche and is a more simple and stable compound than lipstatin.[5][8][9] For that reason orlistat was chosen over lipstatin for development as an anti-obesity drug.[1][10] It is the only available FDA-approved oral lipase inhibitor and is known on the market as Xenical and Alli.[5]
Initially orlistat was developed as a treatment for dyslipidemia, not as an anti-obesity agent. When researchers found out that it promotes less energy uptake, the focus was switched to obesity.[11]

Orlistat has a few

fat soluble vitamins. Due to this, the absorption of fat-soluble vitamins may decrease. Therefore, it is recommended to take a multiple-vitamin supplement during orlistat therapy.[9][12]

clinical trials.[13]
Cetilistat was developed to overcome the adverse effects on the gastrointestinal tract of orlistat. It has a different structure but similar inhibition activity to the gastrointestinal lipase. However cetilistat interacts differently with the fat micelles from digested food, therefore it has less side effects and better tolerability.[14]

Mechanism of action

duodenal mucosa. Lipase inhibitors bind to lipases and inactivate the enzyme. That leads to excretion of the undigested fat with faeces.[12]

The lipase inhibitors lipstatin and orlistat act locally in the intestinal tract. They are minimally absorbed in the circulation because of their lipophilicity.[7] Hence, they do not affect systemic lipases.[11]

The mechanism of lipase inhibitors in fat digestion is shown in figure 1. These inhibitors bind

hydroxyl group at the active site on pancreatic- and gastric lipases and form a stable complex.[7][15]
This results in a conformational change in the enzyme which causes exposing of the catalytic active site. When the active site is exposed, the hydroxyl group on the serine residue is
acylated
. This leads to irreversible inactivation of the enzyme. The inactive lipase is incapable of hydrolysing fats into absorbable fatty acids and monoglycerides, therefore triglycerides are
digestive enzymes.[11]

Cetilistat has a

bicyclic structure but lacks the β-lactone ring. It acts in a similar way as a typical lipase inhibitor that has the β-lactone structure.[4][16]

Drug target

Lipases in the gastrointestinal tract play a critical role in fat digestion. More than 95% of fat in food consists of

hydrolyse it to smaller molecules, free fatty acids and monoglyceride,[20] before absorption can occur.[21]

Gastric lipase

Gastric- and lingual lipases are the two acidic lipolytic enzymes that origin preduodenal but the gastric lipase is in much higher levels in humans. Gastric lipase is synthesized and

gastric chief cells in the stomach and is stable at pH 1,5-8,[21]
but has maximum activity at pH 3-6.[20] Fat digestion begins when gastric lipase hydrolyses dietary triglycerides, by cleaving only one long-, medium- or short-
phospholipids and cholesterol esters
is poor.

Gastric lipase is composed of 379

catalytic activity of gastric lipase. At the N-terminal, Lys4 is necessary for the enzyme to bind at lipid-water interfaces.[21]

catalytic site.[22]

Pancreatic lipase

Pancreatic lipase is the most important lipolytic enzyme in the gastrointestinal tract[21] and is essential for fat digestion.[23] Pancreatic lipase is secreted from

hormones. These hormones are induced in the stomach by hydrolysed products in gastric digestion.[25][26]
The pancreatic lipase is secreted to the small intestine where it is most active, at pH 7-7,5.[20] Pancreatic lipase hydrolyses triglycerides and
diglycerides by cleaving acyl chains at the sn-1 and sn-3 position[21]
and releases free fatty acids and 2-monoglycerides.[23]

The pancreatic lipase consists of 465 amino acids. Schematic picture of pancreatic lipase is shown in figure 2. Pancreatic and gastric lipases share little homology but have the same hydrophobic region at the active site, which is important for the lipolytic activity. The hydrophobic region has the hexapeptide sequence Val-Gly-His-Ser-Gln-Gly and is at Ser153 in pancreatic lipases but Ser152 in gastric lipases.[21]

Chemistry of lipase inhibitors

β-lactone class

The

β-lactone (beta-lactone) ring which is the central pharmacophore
. The β-lactone moiety is shown in red in the structures in the table below. Researches have shown that cleavage of the β-lactone ring results in loss of inhibitory activity of the inhibitors, which makes the β-lactone structure a crucial part in biological activity.[5][8] The lactone ring structure binds irreversibly to the active site of the lipase and forms covalent bond, which leads to inhibition.[27]

Drugs of this class include:

Structure-activity relationship (SAR)

Most natural lipase inhibitors differ only in the structure of the

side chains and the nature of the linked amino acids, but have the same β-lactone ring[5] in (S)-configuration as a primary structure.[1]
Besides the role of the β-lactone ring in
functional groups (e.g. ester or ether and the chain length at the β-site) also matter.[4] However a trans-position of the side-chains on the β-lactone ring is crucial for its activity.[31]

Lipase inhibitors bearing a β-lactone ring
Lipstatin Orlistat Esterastin Valilactone Panclicin D Ebelactone Vibralactone
Structure
IC50 value 6.9 × 10−2 μg/ml[1] 1.2 × 10−1 μg/ml[1] 2.0 × 10−1 μg/ml[1] 1.4 × 10−4 μg/ml[1] 3.9 × 10−1 μg/ml[1] 1.0 × 10−3 μg/ml[1] 4.0 × 10−1 μg/ml[1]

Synthetic lipase inhibitor: cetilistat

Cetilistat
Structure
IUPAC 2-hexadecoxy-6-methyl-3,1-benzoxazin-4-one[32]
Chemical formula C25H39NO3[32]
Molar mass (g/mol) 401.6[32]
IC50 5.95 nmol/l = 2.39 × 10-3 μg/mL (human pancreatic lipase)[33]

Cetilistat is a synthetic lipase inhibitor. Instead of having a β-lactone structure like most of the lipase inhibitors,[16] it has a bicyclic benzoxazinone ring. It is also a lipophilic compound but differs in the hydro- and lipophilic side chain.[14] The structure and more information about Cetilistat is shown in the table on the right.[32]

Other lipase inhibitors

Other lipase inhibitors have been recognized, e.g. from different plant products. These include

microbial sources.[4]

Lipase inhibitors from microbial source can be divided into two classes based on their structure. Those who have a β-lactone ring are lipstatin, valilactone, percyquinin, panclicin A-E, ebelactone A and B, vibralactone and esterastin. Those who do not have a β-lactone ring are (E)-4-amino styryl acetate, ε–polylysine and caulerpenyne.[8]

Lipase inhibitors have also been made synthetically, e.g. cetilistat, based on the structure of triglycerides and other natural lipase substrates.[8] However, the synthetic lipase inhibitors differ in structure and some of them lack the β-lactone ring.[4]

Additional activities

Potential for cancer treatment

As further discussed, orlistat is a pancreatic and gastric lipase inhibitor. Orlistat is also a

upregulated and overexpressed in variety of tumors,[34] scientists have high expectations for FAS as an oncology drug target.[35] Orlistat inhibits FAS with the same mechanism as it does with pancreatic lipase, that is by binding covalently to the active serine site.[35]
This effect of orlistat as a FAS-inhibitor was first identified in a
sensitizes these FAS resistance cancer drugs, by inhibiting FAS.[36]
There is a low FAS expression in normal tissues so the activity of orlistat on normal cells is limited. Because of the difference in FAS expression between normal cells and cancer cells, orlistat selectively targets tumor cells. Due to this FAS is a potential drug target in cancer therapy.[34][37]

Orlistat works locally in the intestines as a lipase inhibitor, and therefore suffers from several limitations in its development as a systemic drug. Its poor bioavailability and solubility are the main reasons to develop a new anticancer analogue to overcome these limitations.[6][34]

References

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