Design, Synthesis, and Evaluation of B-(Trifluoromethyl)phenyl Phosphine-Borane Derivatives as Novel Progesterone Receptor Antagonists.

We previously revealed that phosphine-boranes can function as molecular frameworks for biofunctional molecules. In the present study, we exploited the diversity of available phosphines to design and synthesize a series of B-(trifluoromethyl)phenyl phosphine-borane derivatives as novel progesterone receptor (PR) antagonists. We revealed that the synthesized phosphine-borane derivatives exhibited LogP values in a predictable manner and that the P-H group in the phosphine-borane was almost nonpolar. Among the synthesized phosphine-boranes, which exhibited PR antagonistic activity, B-(4-trifluoromethyl)phenyl tricyclopropylphosphine-borane was the most potent with an IC50 value of 0.54 µM. A docking simulation indicated that the tricyclopropylphosphine moiety plays an important role in ligand-receptor interactions. These results support the idea that phosphine-boranes are versatile structural options in drug discovery, and the developed compounds are promising lead compounds for further structural development of next-generation PR antagonists.

Physicochemical characterization of B-hydroxyphenyl phosphine borane derivatives and their evaluation as nuclear estrogen receptor ligands.

Increasing the structural options in medicinal chemistry is a promising approach to develop new drug candidates. In this research, we designed and synthesized a series of B-hydroxyphenyl phosphine borane derivatives and investigated their structure-property and structure-activity relationships. The synthesized B-phenylphosphine borane derivatives exhibited sufficient stability in aqueous media, weaker hydrophobicity than the corresponding alkanes and silanes, and sufficient affinity for lipid membranes to enable permeability. Several B-hydroxyphenyl phosphine borane derivatives exhibited significant estrogen receptor (ER) agonistic activity with superior ligand-lipophilicity efficiency (LLE). The phosphine borane framework appears to be a promising option for structural development in drug discovery studies.

Orientation of mouse H19 ICR affects imprinted H19 gene expression through promoter methylation-dependent and -independent mechanisms.

The mouse Igf2/H19 locus is regulated by genomic imprinting, in which the paternally methylated H19 imprinting control region (ICR) plays a critical role in mono-allelic expression of the genes in the locus. Although the maternal allele-specific insulator activity of the H19 ICR in regulating imprinted Igf2 expression has been well established, the detailed mechanism by which the H19 ICR controls mono-allelic H19 gene expression has not been fully elucidated. In this study, we evaluated the effect of H19 ICR orientation on imprinting regulation in mutant mice in which the H19 ICR sequence was inverted at the endogenous locus. When the inverted-ICR allele was paternally inherited, the methylation level of the H19 promoter was decreased and the H19 gene was derepressed, suggesting that methylation of the H19 promoter is essential for complete repression of H19 gene expression. Unexpectedly, when the inverted allele was maternally inherited, the expression level of the H19 gene was lower than that of the WT allele, even though the H19 promoter remained fully hypomethylated. These observations suggested that the polarity of the H19 ICR is involved in controlling imprinted H19 gene expression on each parental allele, dependent or independent on DNA methylation of the H19 promoter.

Increased hydrophobicity and estrogenic activity of simple phenols with silicon and germanium-containing substituents.

Here, we report the systematic synthesis and characterization of simple phenols bearing a trialkyl(aryl)silyl or trialkyl(aryl)germyl functional group as a hydrophobic substituent. These silicon and germanium analogues exhibited higher hydrophobicity than the corresponding carbon analogues, with a difference in log P value of approximately 0.6, independent of the alkyl(aryl) species. Trimethylsilylphenol and trimethylgermylphenol exhibited smaller pK(a) values than the corresponding carbon analogue or unsubstituted phenol, indicating that trialkylsilyl and trialkylgermyl functional groups have a negative substituent constant (σ). The trialkylsilyl- and trialkylgermylphenols exhibited more potent estrogenic activity as compared with the carbon analogues. The substituent parameters and structure-activity relationship reported here may be helpful for drug discovery utilizing the heavier group 14 elements.