Design and synthesis of a potent, highly selective, orally bioavailable, retinoic acid receptor alpha agonist.

A ligand-based virtual screening exercise examining likely bioactive conformations of AM 580 (2) and AGN 193836 (3) was used to identify the novel, less lipophilic RARα agonist 4-(3,5-dichloro-4-ethoxybenzamido)benzoic acid 5, which has good selectivity over the RARß, and RARγ receptors. Analysis of the medicinal chemistry parameters of the 3,5-substituents of derivatives of template 5 enabled us to design a class of drug-like molecules with lower intrinsic clearance and higher oral bioavailability which led to the novel RARα agonist 4-(3-chloro-4-ethoxy-5-isopropoxybenzamido)-2-methylbenzoic acid 56 that has high RARα potency and excellent selectivity versus RARß (2 orders of magnitude) and RARγ (4 orders of magnitude) at both the human and mouse RAR receptors with improved drug-like properties. This RARα specific agonist 56 has high oral bioavailability (>80%) in both mice and dogs with a good PK profile and was shown to be inactive in cytotoxicity and genotoxicity screens.

Discovery of Narrow Spectrum Kinase Inhibitors: New Therapeutic Agents for the Treatment of COPD and Steroid-Resistant Asthma.

The discovery of a novel series of therapeutic agents that has been designed and optimized for treating chronic obstructive pulmonary disease is reported. The pharmacological strategy was based on the identification of compounds that inhibit a defined subset of kinase enzymes modulating inflammatory processes that would be effective against steroid refractory disease and exhibit a sustained duration of action after inhaled delivery.