Importance of 5/6-aryl substitution on the pharmacological profile of 4'-((2-propyl-1H-benzo[d]imidazol-1-yl)methyl)-[1,1'-biphenyl]-2-carboxylic acid derived PPARγ agonists.

In this structure-activity relationship study, the influence of aryl substituents at position 5 or 6 on the pharmacological profile of the partial PPARγ agonist 4'-((2-propyl-1H-benzo[d]imidazol-1-yl)methyl)-[1,1'-biphenyl]-2-carboxylic acid was investigated. This lead was previously identified as the essential part of telmisartan to induce PPARγ activation. Para-OCH3-phenyl substitution strongly increased potency and efficacy independent of the position. Both compounds represent full agonists because of strong hydrophobic contacts with the amino acid Phe363 in the ligand binding domain. Partial agonists with higher potency than telmisartan or the lead were obtained with OH or Cl substituents at the phenyl ring. Molecular modeling suggested additional hydrogen or halogen bonds with Phe360 located at helix 7. It is assumed that these interactions fix helix 7, thereby promoting a partial agonist conformation of the receptor. The theoretical considerations correlate very well with the results from the luciferase transactivation assay using hPPARγ-LBD as well as those from a time-resolved fluorescent resonance energy transfer (TR-FRET) assay in which the coactivator (TRAP220, PGC-1α) recruitment and corepressor (NCoR1) release pattern was investigated.

Pyrimidine-2,4,6-triones are a new class of voltage-gated L-type Ca2+ channel activators.

Cav1.2 and Cav1.3 are the main L-type Ca(2+) channel subtypes in the brain. Cav1.3 channels have recently been implicated in the pathogenesis of Parkinson's disease. Therefore, Cav1.3-selective blockers are developed as promising neuroprotective drugs. We studied the pharmacological properties of a pyrimidine-2,4,6-trione derivative (1-(3-chlorophenethyl)-3-cyclopentylpyrimidine-2,4,6-(1H,3H,5H)-trione, Cp8) recently reported as the first highly selective Cav1.3 blocker. Here we show, in contrast to this previous study, that Cp8 reproducibly increases inward Ca(2+) currents of Cav1.3 and Cav1.2 channels expressed in tsA-201 cells by slowing activation, inactivation and enhancement of tail currents. Similar effects are also observed for native Cav1.3 and Cav1.2 channels in mouse chromaffin cells, while non-L-type currents are unaffected. Evidence for a weak and non-selective inhibition of Cav1.3 and Cav1.2 currents is only observed in a minority of cells using Ba(2+) as charge carrier. Therefore, our data identify pyrimidine-2,4,6-triones as Ca(2+) channel activators.