Ribocil-C

Description: Ribocil-C is a novel, potenty and highly selective chemical modulator of bacterial riboflavin riboswitches. Ribocil-C strongly inhibits GFP expression, achieving a 50% effective concentration (EC50) of 0.3 uM. Ribocil-C is a highly specific bioactive synthetic mimic of FMN, which competes with the natural ligand to inhibit FMN riboswitch-mediated expression of ribB and inhibits bacterial growth. Riboswitches are non-coding RNA structures located in messenger RNAs that bind endogenous ligands, such as a specific metabolite or ion, to regulate gene expression. As such, riboswitches serve as a novel, yet largely unexploited, class of emerging drug targets. Demonstrating this potential, however, has proven difficult and is restricted to structurally similar antimetabolites and semi-synthetic analogues of their cognate ligand, thus greatly restricting the chemical space and selectivity sought for such inhibitors.

References: Nature. 2015 Oct 29; 526(7575):672-7.