From structure to clinic: Design of a muscarinic M1 receptor agonist with potential to treatment of Alzheimer's disease.

Current therapies for Alzheimer's disease seek to correct for defective cholinergic transmission by preventing the breakdown of acetylcholine through inhibition of acetylcholinesterase, these however have limited clinical efficacy. An alternative approach is to directly activate cholinergic receptors responsible for learning and memory. The M1-muscarinic acetylcholine (M1) receptor is the target of choice but has been hampered by adverse effects. Here we aimed to design the drug properties needed for a well-tolerated M1-agonist with the potential to alleviate cognitive loss by taking a stepwise translational approach from atomic structure, cell/tissue-based assays, evaluation in preclinical species, clinical safety testing, and finally establishing activity in memory centers in humans. Through this approach, we rationally designed the optimal properties, including selectivity and partial agonism, into HTL9936-a potential candidate for the treatment of memory loss in Alzheimer's disease. More broadly, this demonstrates a strategy for targeting difficult GPCR targets from structure to clinic.

Novel Macrocyclic Antagonists of the CGRP Receptor Part 2: Stereochemical Inversion Induces an Unprecedented Binding Mode.

The diastereomeric macrocyclic calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP) antagonists HTL0029881 (3) and HTL0029882 (4), in which the stereochemistry of a spiro center is reversed, surprisingly demonstrate comparable potency. X-ray crystallographic characterization demonstrates that 3 binds to the CGRP receptor in a precedented manner but that 4 binds in an unprecedented, unexpected, and radically different manner. The observation of this phenomenon is noteworthy and may open novel avenues for CGRP receptor antagonist design.

Acetylcholine prioritises direct synaptic inputs from entorhinal cortex to CA1 by differential modulation of feedforward inhibitory circuits.

Acetylcholine release in the hippocampus plays a central role in the formation of new memory representations. An influential but largely untested theory proposes that memory formation requires acetylcholine to enhance responses in CA1 to new sensory information from entorhinal cortex whilst depressing inputs from previously encoded representations in CA3. Here, we show that excitatory inputs from entorhinal cortex and CA3 are depressed equally by synaptic release of acetylcholine in CA1. However, feedforward inhibition from entorhinal cortex exhibits greater depression than CA3 resulting in a selective enhancement of excitatory-inhibitory balance and CA1 activation by entorhinal inputs. Entorhinal and CA3 pathways engage different feedforward interneuron subpopulations and cholinergic modulation of presynaptic function is mediated differentially by muscarinic M3 and M4 receptors, respectively. Thus, our data support a role and mechanisms for acetylcholine to prioritise novel information inputs to CA1 during memory formation.

Identification of novel p38alpha MAP kinase inhibitors using fragment-based lead generation.

We describe the structure-guided optimization of the molecular fragments 2-amino-3-benzyloxypyridine 1 (IC(50) 1.3 mM) and 3-(2-(4-pyridyl)ethyl)indole 2 (IC(50) 35 microM) identified using X-ray crystallographic screening of p38alpha MAP kinase. Using two separate case studies, the article focuses on the key compounds synthesized, the structure-activity relationships and the binding mode observations made during this optimization process, resulting in two potent lead series that demonstrate significant increases in activity. We describe the process of compound elaboration either through the growing out from fragments into adjacent pockets or through the conjoining of overlapping fragments and demonstrate that we have exploited the mobile conserved activation loop, consisting in part of Asp168-Phe169-Gly170 (DFG), to generate significant improvements in potency and kinase selectivity.

High-throughput analytical techniques for reaction optimization.

This review describes recent developments in approaches to high-throughput reaction optimization, as well as the associated analytical techniques. The studies discussed include the use of UV-visible, IR-thermographic and mass spectrometric methods for application in catalyst development, process optimization and materials science. Other methods of potential use in a high-throughput format are also discussed.

Treatment and prevention of various therapeutic conditions using OX receptor antagonistic activity (WO2012081692).

Application WO2012081692 from Taisho Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd. claims pyrazole-based antagonists of the orexin-1 and orexin-2 receptors. Utility in a number of therapeutic areas is claimed, including the treatment of sleep disorders; the most likely use of the claimed compounds. Data from in vitro functional assays are presented, with the claimed compounds typically being dual orexin receptor antagonists (DORAs) or having moderate selectivity for orexin-1. Structurally, the claimed compounds represent a variation on established DORA SAR themes and translate features of clinical compounds into a pyrazole-based scaffold. Example 52, the most potent molecule in the application, has similar molecular weight and lipophilicity to suvorexant, the most advanced DORA, with broadly comparable potency in functional assays.

Synthesis of (+)-obtusenyne.

An enantioselective synthesis of the halogenated medium-ring ether natural product (+)-obtusenyne is reported which uses the ring expansion of a seven-membered ketene acetal by means of a Claisen rearrangement to construct the core nine-membered oxygen heterocycle. The trans substituents across the ether linkage were established by using a transition-metal-catalyzed intramolecular hydrosilation reaction of an exo-cyclic enol ether. In addition, a formal synthesis of ent-obtusenyne from 2-deoxy-D-ribose is reported. A number of interesting points regarding the chemistry of medium-ring oxygen heterocycles are highlighted.

Analytical construct resins for analysis of solid-phase chemistry.

Rapid and unambiguous analysis of reactions performed on resin supports can be achieved by using "analytical constructs". These resins allow the synthesis of materials using solid-phase methods in the usual manner, but they also contain functionality enabling cleavage of analytically enhanced derivatives of the resin-bound products. This is possible due to the use of two linkers bound in series to the polymer. Cleavage at the first linker yields the products attached to an analytical enhancer that facilitates detection. Orthogonal cleavage at the second linker yields the desired products in the usual manner.

Development of an indole safety-catch linker using analytical constructs.

The development, evaluation, and application of a novel safety-catch linker for solid-phase synthesis based on an N-tosylindole is reported. The development of this linker using analytical constructs to aid analysis is discussed.

A novel phase-switching protecting group for multi-step parallel solution phase synthesis.

A new phase-tag 1 which facilitates the parallel solution phase synthesis of carboxylic acids, esters, and carboxamides is reported. The new phase tag assists compound purification by enabling the selective resin capture of reaction products in either a reversible pH dependent manner (solid-phase extraction), or irreversibly in a Diels-Alder reaction.