Structural Insights into Protein-Inhibitor Interactions in Human Tryptophan Dioxygenase

Human tryptophan dioxygenase (TDO) and indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase (IDO) are two important targets in cancer immunotherapy. Extensive research has led to a large number of potent IDO inhibitors; in addition, 52 structures of IDO in complex with inhibitors with a wide array of chemical scaffolds have been documented. In contrast, progress in the development of TDO inhibitors has been limited. Only four structures of TDO in complex with competitive inhibitors that compete with the substrate L-tryptophan for binding to the active site have been reported to date. Here we systematically evaluated the structures of TDO in complex with competitive inhibitors with three types of pharmacophores, imidazo-isoindole, indole-tetrazole, and indole-benzotriazole. The comparative assessment of the protein-inhibitor interactions sheds new light into the structure-based design of enzyme-selective inhibitors.