Discovery of a new series of 5-HT1A receptor agonists.

Starting from compounds previously identified as alpha(1)-adrenoceptor antagonists that were also found to bind to the 5-HT(1A) receptor, in an attempt to separate the two activities, a new series of 5-HT(1A) receptor agonists was identified and shown to have high potency and/or high selectivity. Of these, compound 13, which combines high selectivity (5-HT(1A)/alpha(1)=151) and good agonist potency (pD(2)=7.82; E(max)=76), was found to be the most interesting.

Structure-affinity/activity relationships of 1,4-dioxa-spiro[4.5]decane based ligands at α1 and 5-HT1A receptors.

Recently, 1-(1,4-dioxaspiro[4,5]dec-2-ylmethyl)-4-(2-methoxyphenyl)piperazine (1) was reported as a highly selective and potent 5-HT1AR ligand. In the present work we adopted an in-parallel synthetic strategy to rapidly explore a new set of arylpiperazine (7-32) that is structurally related to 1. The compounds were tested for binding affinity and functional activity at 5-HT1AR and α1-adrenoceptor subtypes and SAR studies were drawn. In particular, compounds 9, 27 and 30 emerged as promising α1 receptor antagonists, while compound 10 behaves as the most potent and efficacious 5-HT1AR agonist. All the compounds were docked into the 5HT1AR theoretical model and the results were in agreement with the biological experimental data. These findings may represent a new starting point for developing more selective α1 or 5-HT1AR ligands.

1,3-Dioxolane-based ligands incorporating a lactam or imide moiety: structure-affinity/activity relationship at alpha1-adrenoceptor subtypes and at 5-HT1A receptors.

A series of 1,3-dioxolane-based compounds incorporating a lactam (2-4) or imide (5-7) moiety was synthesized and the pharmacological profile at alpha(1)-adrenoceptor subtypes and 5-HT(1A) receptor was assessed through binding and functional experiments. Starting from the 2,2-diphenyl-1,3-dioxolane derivative 1, previously shown to be a selective alpha(1a(A))/alpha(1d(D))-adrenoceptor subtype antagonist, over alpha(1b(B)) subtype and 5-HT(1A) receptor, and replacing one phenyl ring with lactam or imide moiety a reduction of alpha(1)/5-HT(1A) selectivity is observed, mainly due to the increase in 5-HT(1A) affinity. In functional experiments lactam derivatives seems to favour 5-HT(1A) receptor antagonism (pKb = 7.20-7.80) and alpha(1B)-adrenoceptor antagonist selectivity (alpha(1B)/alpha(1A) and alpha(1B)/alpha(1D) of about 10-fold). The most interesting of the various imide derivatives is compound 7t, which is a selective alpha(1D)-adrenoceptor antagonist (pKb = 8.1 and alpha(1D)/alpha(1A) and alpha(1D)/alpha(1B) selectivity ratios of 16 and 11 respectively) whereas at 5-HT(1A) receptor it is a potent partial agonist (pD2 = 7.98, E(max) = 60%).]. Given that cis and trans diastereomer pairs for 2-7 are possible, a computational strategy based on molecular docking studies was used to elucidate the atomic details of the 5HT(1A)/agonist and 5HT(1A)/antagonist interaction.

Non-natural macrocyclic inhibitors of histone deacetylases: design, synthesis, and activity.

Nonpeptidic chiral macrocycles were designed on the basis of an analogue of suberoylanilide hydroxamic acid (2) (SAHA, vorinostat) and evaluated against 11 histone deacetylase (HDAC) isoforms. The identification of critical amino acid residues highly conserved in the cap region of HDACs guided the design of the suberoyl-based macrocycles, which were expected to bear a maximum common substructure required to target the whole HDAC panel. A nanomolar HDAC inhibitory profile was observed for several compounds, which was comparable, if not superior, to that of 2. A promising cytotoxic activity was found for selected macrocycles against lung and colon cancer cell lines. Further elaboration of selected candidates led to compounds with an improved selectivity against HDAC6 over the other isozymes. Pair-fitting analysis was used to compare one of the best candidates with the natural tetrapeptide apicidin, in an effort to define a general pharmacophore that might be useful in the design of surrogates of peptidic macrocycles as potent and isoform-selective inhibitors.