Endogenous opioid peptides have been studied extensively as potential therapeutics for the treatment of pain. The major problems of using natural opioid peptides as drug candidates are their poor receptor specificity, metabolic instability and inability to reach the brain after systemic administration. A lot of synthetic efforts have been made to opioid analogs with improved pharmacological properties. One important structural modification leading to such analogs is cyclization of linear sequences. Intramolecular cyclization has been shown to improve biological properties of various bioactive peptides. Cyclization reduces conformational freedom responsible for the simultaneous activation of two or more receptors, increases metabolic stability and lipophilicity which may result in a longer half-life and easier penetration across biological membranes. This review deals with various strategies that have been employed to synthesize cyclic analogs of opioid peptides. Discussed are such bridging bonds as amide and amine linkages, sulfur-containing bonds, including monosulfide, disulfide and dithioether bridges, bismethylene bonds, monosulfide bridges of lanthionine and, finally, carbonyl and guanidine linkages. Opioid affinities and activities of cyclic analogs are given and compared with linear opioid peptides. Analgesic activities of analogs evaluated in the in vivo pain tests are also discussed.
As part of our continuing studies on the structure−activity relationships of cyclic pentapeptides based on the structure of endomorphin-2 (EM-2), we report here the synthesis and biological activities of a new series of analogues of a general sequence Tyr/Dmt-c[D-Lys-Phe-Phe-Asp]NH 2 (where Dmt = 2′,6′-dimethyltyrosine), incorporating fluorinated amino acids: 4-fluorophenylalanine (4-F-Phe), 2,4-difluorophenylalanine (2,4-F-Phe), or 4-trifluoromethylphenylalanine (4-CF 3 -Phe) instead of the Phe residue in position 3 or 4. Depending on the fluorinated amino acid residue and its position in the sequence, analogues were mixed, high affinity MOP/KOP receptor agonists, MOP/DOP/KOP agonists, or selective KOP agonists. The in vitro potencies and efficacies of all novel analogues were assessed in calcium mobilization assay. The most potent analogues, Dmt-c[D-Lys-Phe-4-F-Phe-Asp]NH 2 and Dmt-c[D-Lys-Phe-2,4-F-Phe-Asp]NH 2 , were tested in vivo in the mouse hot-plate test. They produced strong antinociceptive effect not only after intracerebroventricular but also after intraperitoneal injection, indicating that they were able to cross the blood−brain barrier.
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