The serotonin 2C receptor subtype (5-HT) is an excitatory 5-HT receptor widely distributed throughout the central nervous system. As the 5-HT receptor displays multiple actions on various neurotransmitter systems including glutamate, dopamine, epinephrine, and γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA), abnormalities of the 5-HT receptor are associated with psychiatric diseases such as depression, schizophrenia, drug abuse, and anxiety. Up to date, three kinds of 5-HT PET radiotracers such as [C]N-methylated arylazepine (1), [C]WAY-163909 (2), and [F]fluorophenylcyclopropane (3) have been developed, but they may not be suitable for in vivo 5-HT imaging study due to their modest specific binding. Herein, the synthesis and in vivo evaluation of 4-(3-[F]fluorophenethoxy)pyrimidine [F]4 as a potential PET radiotracer for the 5-HT receptor is described. [F]4 was synthesized by nucleophilic aromatic substitution of diaryliodonium precursor 17a with a 7.8 ± 2.7% (n = 6, decay corrected) radiochemical yield and over 99% radiochemical purity, showing an 89 ± 14 GBq/μmol specific radioactivity. The in vivo PET imaging studies of [F]4 with or without lorcaserin, a U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved selective 5-HT agonist, demonstrated that [F]4 exhibits a high level of specific binding to 5-HT receptors in the rat brain.

No abstract

No abstract

Metabotropic glutamate receptor 1 (mGluR1) is considered as an attractive drug target for neuropathic pain treatments. The hierarchical virtual screening approach for identifying novel scaffolds of mGluR1 allosteric modulators was performed using a homology model built with the dopamine D3 crystal structure as template. The mGluR1 mutagenesis data, conserved amino acid sequences across class A and class C GPCRs, and previously reported multiple sequence alignments of class C GPCRs to the rhodopsin template, were employed for the sequence alignment to overcome difficulties of model generation with low sequence identity of mGluR1 and dopamine D3. The structures refined by molecular dynamics simulations were employed for docking of Asinex commercial libraries after hierarchical virtual screening with pharmacophore and naïve Bayesian models. Five of 35 compounds experimentally evaluated using a calcium mobilization assay exhibited micromolar activities (IC50) with chemotype novelty that demonstrated the validity of our methods. A hierarchical structure and ligand-based virtual screening approach with homology model of class C GPCR based on dopamine D3 class A GPCR structure was successfully performed and applied to discover novel negative mGluR1 allosteric modulators.

A data set of 130 diverse compounds containing both central nervous system (CNS) and non-CNS drugs was used to generate a renal clearance model using a classical Volsurf approach. Percentage renal clearance data was used as a biological input. The score plots obtained from principal component analysis and partial least-squares (PLS) analysis clearly separated high-clearance compounds from low-clearance compounds. PLS models were used to predict the renal clearance of the data set. Categorical statistical methods such as SIMCA and recursive partitioning techniques were used for classifying the compounds into low- and high-clearance categories. PLS coefficient plots, Volsurf descriptor profiles, 3D Grid maps, and RP decision trees were used to explain the important descriptors separating low and high renal clearance compounds. For comparative purposes, topological descriptors such as Molconn-Z were also examined. All the models were validated by an external test set of 20 compounds. These models can be used as efficient tools in the classification and prediction of the renal clearance of unknown compounds, the knowledge of which is helpful in understanding their bioavailability behavior.

Serotonin 5-HT6 receptor antagonists are thought to play an important role in the treatment of psychiatry, Alzheimer's disease, and probably obesity. To find novel and potent 5-HT6 antagonists and to provide a new idea for drug design, we used a ligand-based pharmacophore to perform the virtual screening of a commercially available database. A three-dimensional common feature pharmacophore model was developed by using the HipHop program provided in Catalyst software and was used as a query for screening the database. A recursive partitioning (RP) model which can separate active and inactive compounds was used as a filtering system. Finally a sequential virtual screening procedure (SQSP) was conducted, wherein both the common feature pharmacophore and the RP model were used in succession to improve the results. Some of the hits were selected based on druglikeness, ADME properties, structural diversity, and synthetic accessibility for real biological evaluation. The best hit compound showed a significant IC50 value of 9.6 nM and can be used as a lead for further drug development.

A concise synthesis of 8-azabicyclo[3.2.1]octanes via sequential oxidative Mannich reactions is described. This approach involves an intermolecular oxidative Mannich coupling reaction between N-aryl pyrrolidines with TMS enol ether and a subsequent intramolecular oxidative Mannich cyclization of the corresponding silyl enol ether. DDQ is used as a key oxidant for both reactions.

[reaction: see text]. A novel synthetic methodology for 2,5-disubstituted tetrahydrofurans having an allenyl group at the 3-position via Prins-type cyclization was developed. The reaction led to excellent selectivity and moderate to high yields.