The Ligand Design (LUDI) approach has been used in order to design leucine
aminopeptidase inhibitors, predict their activity and analyze their interac
tions with the enzyme. The investigation was based on the crystal structure
of bovine lens leucine aminopeptidase (LAP) complexed with its inhibitor -
the phosphonic acid analogue of leucine (LeuP). More than 50 potential leu
cine aminopeptidase inhibitors have been obtained, including the most poten
t aminophosphonic LAP inhibitors with experimentally known activity, which
have been the subject of more detailed studies. A reasonable agreement betw
een theoretical and experimental activities has been obtained for most of t
he studied inhibitors. Our results confirm that LUDI is a powerful tool for
the design of enzyme inhibitors as well as in the prediction of their acti
vity. In addition, for inhibitor-active site interactions dominated by the
electrostatic effects it is possible to improve binding energy estimates by
using a more accurate description of inhibitor charge distribution.