In 2024, an estimated 100,640 new cases of invasive melanoma were diagnosed in the U.S., with 9290 deaths. Our previous studies revealed that neuronal nitric oxide synthase (nNOS) derived nitric oxide plays a critical role in melanoma progression, making nNOS inhibition a promising strategy. High structural similarity among NOS isoforms requires careful design of nNOS inhibitors to avoid off-target effects. Our previous lead, HH044, demonstrated potent antimelanoma activity but exhibited only moderate nNOS selectivity. Here, we utilized a structure-based approach to design nNOS inhibitors that promote interactions with human nNOS-specific residue His342. Compound 9 exhibited inhibition of both human (Ki = 1.7 nM) and rat nNOS (Ki = 2.3 nM), with 5654-fold selectivity over human eNOS and 250-fold selectivity over iNOS. X-ray crystallography and molecular modeling revealed a novel SAR, forming the basis for nNOS inhibition and providing a foundation for further innovative design of nNOS inhibitors for melanoma treatment.
Awasthi et al. (Fri,) studied this question.