Fibroblast collagenase (MMP-1), a member of the matrix metalloproteinases family, is believed to be a pathogenesis of arthritis, by cleaving triple-helical type II collagen in cartilage. From the similarity of the active site zinc binding mode with hydroxamate, we designed and synthesized α-mercaptocarbonyl possessing compounds (3—5), which incorporated various peptide sequences as enzyme recognition sites. The P 4–P 1 ...