Design, synthesis, and biological evaluation of fluoroneplanocin A as the novel mechanism-based inhibitor of S-adenosylhomocysteine hydrolase

Fluoroneplanocin A (12) was designed as a novel mechanism-based inhibitor of S-adenosylhomocysteine hydrolase (SAH) and efficiently synthesized via an electrophilic vinyl fluorination reaction (n-BuLi, N-fluorobenzenesulfonimide at -78 °C). Fluoroneplanocin A exhibited 2-fold more potent SAH inhibitory activity than the parent neplanocin A. A new mechanism of irreversible inhibition discovered in this work might provide new alternatives in the design of a different class of antiviral agents operating via SAH inhibition.