Benzyl alcohol inhibits carbonic anhydrases by anchoring to the zinc coordinated water molecule

Up to date alcohols have been scarcely investigated as carbonic anhydrase (CA) inhibitors. To get more insights into the CA inhibition properties of this class of molecules, in this paper, by means of inhibition assays and X-ray crystallographic studies we report a detailed characterization of the CA inhibition properties and the binding mode to human CA II of benzyl alcohol. Results show that, although possessing a very simple scaffold, this molecule acts as a micromolar CA II inhibitor, which anchors to the enzyme active site by means of an H-bond interaction with the zinc bound solvent molecule. Taken together our results clearly indicate primary alcohols as a class of CA inhibitors that deserve to be more investigated.