Abstract
N-α-[(S)-1-carboxy-3-phenylpropyl]-L-lysyl-L-proline (MK-0521) is a new non-sulfhydryl-containing angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitor. The present investigation describes its ACE and other enzymes inhibitory properties and compares it to those of captopril, MK-421 and MK-422 in vitro. MK-0521 inhibited rat pulmonary ACE by 50% (IC50) at a concentration of 3nM and was 6.13 times more potent than captopril. The IC50 values of MK-421 and MK-422 against ACE were 2, 000 nM and 3.5 nM, respectively. MK-0521 had practically no inhibitory activities against carboxypeptidase A, carboxypeptidase B, leucineaminopeptidase, papain, pepsin and trypsin. The kinetic study on the inhibitory activity of M-0521 against ACE using Lineweaver-Burk plots indicated that MK-0521 exerted competitive ACE inhibition. The dialysis study conducted on the ACEMK-0521 complex revealed that the inhibitory effect of MK-0521 against ACE was reversible. In the guinea pig ileum, MK-0521 potentiated the contractile effect of bradykinin and depressed the contractile effect of angiotensin I. These effects on bradykinin and angiotensin I were 33.11 and 2.63 times more potent than that of captopril, respectively. The present results suggest that MK-0521 may show a potent hypotensive effect in vivo.