Structure–activity relationships of oxysterol-derived pharmacological chaperones for Niemann–Pick type C1 protein

Niemann-Pick disease type C is a fatal neurodegenerative disease, and its major cause is mutations in NPC1 gene. This gene encodes NPC1 protein, a late endosomal polytopic membrane protein required for intracellular cholesterol trafficking. One prevalent mutation (I1061T) has been shown to cause a folding defect, which results in failure of endosomal localization of the protein, leading to loss-of-function phenotype. We have previously demonstrated that several oxysterols and their derivatives act as pharmacological chaperones; binding of these compounds to NPC1(I1061T) mutant protein corrects the localization/maturation defect of the mutant protein. Here, we disclose detailed structure-activity relationships of oxysterol derivatives as pharmacological chaperones for NPC1(I1061T) mutant.