Analysis of Subpocket Selectivity and Identification of Potent Selective Inhibitors for Matriptase and Matriptase‑2

We studied the factors affecting the selectivity of peptidomimetic inhibitors of the highly homologous proteases matriptase and matriptase-2 across subpockets using docking simulations. We observed that the farther away a subpocket is located from the catalytic site, the more pronounced its role in selectivity. As a result of our exhaustive virtual screening, we biochemically validated novel potent and selective inhibitors of both enzymes.