Selective inhibitors of deubiquitylases

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): In the last decade there has been an explosive growth in the field of ubiquitin research, with approximately 530 human genes predicted to encode enzymes involved in the conjugation and deconjugation of ubiquitin. Of these 95 encode deubiquitylases (DUBs) and these enzymes have become the target of many on-going drug discovery efforts. All DUBs carry-out the enzymatic removal of ubiquitin (Ub) from target proteins, whether that protein is a normal cellular protein or is Ub itself. Deconjugation requires the cleavage of an isopeptide bond formed between the C-terminus of Ub and the -NH2-group of a Lys residue in the target protein. With the exception of the JAMM-family of DUBs, all DUBs fall into the peptidase C19 familyand have an activated cysteine residue in the active site. As a consequence, most screening programs have a high hit rate of cys-reactive compounds that show low selectivity and potency. The most potent DUB inhibitors are generally produced by incorpo