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Identification of potent pyrazole based APELIN receptor (APJ) agonists.

ABSTRACT: The apelinergic system comprises the apelin receptor and its cognate apelin and elabela peptide ligands of various lengths. This system has become an increasingly attractive target for pulmonary and cardiometabolic diseases. Small molecule regulators of this receptor with good drug-like properties are needed. Recently, we discovered a novel pyrazole based small molecule agonist 8 of the apelin receptor (EC₅₀ = 21.5 µM, K_i = 5.2 µM) through focused screening which was further optimized to initial lead 9 (EC₅₀ = 0.800 µM, K_i = 1.3 µM). In our efforts to synthesize more potent agonists and to explore the structural features important for apelin receptor agonism, we carried out structural modifications at N1 of the pyrazole core as well as the amino acid side-chain of 9. Systematic modifications at these two positions provided potent small molecule agonists exhibiting EC₅₀ values of <100 nM. Recruitment of ?-arrestin as a measure of desensitization potential of select compounds was also investigated. Functional selectivity was a feature of several compounds with a bias towards calcium mobilization over ?-arrestin recruitment. These compounds may be suitable as tools for in vivo studies of apelin receptor function.

SUBMITTER: Narayanan S

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7055011 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Identification of potent pyrazole based APELIN receptor (APJ) agonists.

Narayanan Sanju S Vasukuttan Vineetha V Rajagopal Sudarshan S Maitra Rangan R Runyon Scott P SP

Bioorganic & medicinal chemistry 20191130 4

The apelinergic system comprises the apelin receptor and its cognate apelin and elabela peptide ligands of various lengths. This system has become an increasingly attractive target for pulmonary and cardiometabolic diseases. Small molecule regulators of this receptor with good drug-like properties are needed. Recently, we discovered a novel pyrazole based small molecule agonist 8 of the apelin receptor (EC<sub>50</sub> = 21.5 µM, K<sub>i</sub> = 5.2 µM) through focused screening which was furthe ...[more]

PMID: 31948845

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Project description:Natural products are an abundant source of potential drugs, and their diversity makes them a rich and viable prospective source of bioactive cannabinoid ligands. Cannabinoid receptor 1 (CB1) antagonists are clinically established and well documented as potential therapeutics for treating obesity, obesity-related cardiometabolic disorders, pain, and drug/substance abuse, but their associated CNS-mediated adverse effects hinder the development of potential new drugs and no such drug is currently on the market. This limitation amplifies the need for new agents with reduced or no CNS-mediated side effects. We are interested in the discovery of new natural product chemotypes as CB1 antagonists, which may serve as good starting points for further optimization towards the development of CB1 therapeutics. In search of new chemotypes as CB1 antagonists, we screened the in silico purchasable natural products subset of the ZINC12 database against our reported CB1 receptor model using the structure-based virtual screening (SBVS) approach. A total of 18 out of 192 top-scoring virtual hits, selected based on structural diversity and key protein?ligand interactions, were purchased and subjected to in vitro screening in competitive radioligand binding assays. The in vitro screening yielded seven compounds exhibiting >50% displacement at 10 ?M concentration, and further binding affinity (Ki and IC50) and functional data revealed compound 16 as a potent and selective CB1 inverse agonist (Ki = 121 nM and EC50 = 128 nM) while three other compounds-2, 12, and 18-were potent but nonselective CB1 ligands with low micromolar binding affinity (Ki). In order to explore the structure?activity relationship for compound 16, we further purchased compounds with >80% similarity to compound 16, screened them for CB1 and CB2 activities, and found two potent compounds with sub-micromolar activities. Most importantly, these bioactive compounds represent structurally new natural product chemotypes in the area of cannabinoid research and could be considered for further structural optimization as CB1 ligands.

Dataset Information

Identification of potent pyrazole based APELIN receptor (APJ) agonists.

Publications

Identification of potent pyrazole based APELIN receptor (APJ) agonists.

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