The design and synthesis of potent, selective benzodiazepine sulfonamide bombesin receptor subtype 3 (BRS-3) agonists with an increased barrier of atropisomerization.

Bombesin receptor subtype 3 (BRS-3) is an orphan G-protein coupled receptor expressed primarily in the hypothalamus which plays a role in the onset of both diabetes and obesity. We report herein our progress made towards identifying a potent, selective bombesin receptor subtype-3 (BRS-3) agonist related to the previously described MK-7725(1) Chobanian et al. (2012) that would prevent atropisomerization through the increase of steric bulk at the C-2 position. This would thereby make clinical development of this class of compounds more cost effective by inhibiting racemization which can occur over long periods of time at room/elevated temperature.

Discovery of benzodiazepine sulfonamide-based bombesin receptor subtype 3 agonists and their unusual chirality.

We report herein the discovery of benzodiazepine sulfonamide-based bombesin receptor subtype 3 (BRS-3) agonists and their unusual chirality. Starting from a high-throughput screening lead, we prepared a series of BRS-3 agonists with improved potency and pharmacokinetic properties, of which compound 8a caused mechanism-based, dose-dependent food intake reduction and body weight loss after oral dosing in diet-induced obese mice. This effort also led to the discovery of a novel family of chiral molecules originated from the conformationally constrained seven-membered diazepine ring.