Design and synthesis of 6-fluoro-2-naphthyl derivatives as novel CCR3 antagonists with reduced CYP2D6 inhibition

Recent progress in the development of antagonists to the chemokine receptors CCR3 and CCR4

INTRODUCTION

The chemokine receptors CCR3 and CCR4 have been shown to be important therapeutic targets for the treatment of a variety of diseases. Although only two chemokine receptor inhibitors have been approved so far, there are numerous compounds that are in various stages of development.

AREAS COVERED

In this review article, the authors provide an update on the progress made in the identification of antagonists against the chemokine receptors CCR3 and CCR4 from 2009 to the present. The rationale of writing this review article is to cover the most important approaches to identifying antagonists to these two receptors, which could prove to be useful therapeutics in treating proinflammatory diseases.

EXPERT OPINION

Pharmaceutical companies have expended a considerable amount of money and effort to identify potent inhibitors of CCR3 and CCR4 for the treatment of asthma and atopic diseases. Although a variety of compounds have been described and several have progressed into the clinic, none have so far made it as approved drugs. There are, however, novel approaches such as mogamulizumab, a monoclonal antibody to CCR4 currently is in clinical trials for cancer and ASM8, an antisense nucleotide to CCR3, which is in Phase II clinical trials for asthma that might still prove to be successful new therapeutics.

Octahydropyrrolo[3,4-c]pyrrole negative allosteric modulators of mGlu1

Development of SAR in an octahydropyrrolo[3,4-c]pyrrole series of negative allosteric modulators of mGlu1 using a functional cell-based assay is described in this Letter. The octahydropyrrolo[3,4-c]pyrrole scaffold was chosen as an isosteric replacement for the piperazine ring found in the initial hit compound. Characterization of selected compounds in protein binding assays was used to identify the most promising analogs, which were then profiled in P450 inhibition assays in order to further assess the potential for drug-likeness within this series of compounds.

Small molecule antagonists for chemokine CCR3 receptors

The chemokine receptor CCR3 is believed to play a role in the development of allergic diseases such as asthma, atopic dermatitis, and allergic rhinitis. Despite the conflicting results that have been reported regarding the importance of eosinophils and CCR3 in allergic inflammation, inhibition of this receptor with small molecule antagonists is thought to provide a valuable approach for the treatment of these diseases. This review describes the structure-activity relationships (SAR) of small molecule CCR3 antagonists as reported in the scientific and patent literature. Various chemical classes of small molecule CCR3 antagonists have been described so far, including (bi)piperidine and piperazine derivatives, N-arylalkylpiperidine urea derivatives and (N-ureidoalkyl)benzylpiperidines, phenylalanine derivatives, morpholinyl derivatives, pyrrolidinohydroquinazolines, arylsulfonamides, amino-alkyl amides, imidazole- and pyrimidine-based antagonists, and bicyclic diamines. The (N-ureidoalkyl)benzylpiperidines are the best studied class in view of their generally high affinity and antagonizing potential. For many of these antagonists subnanomolar IC(50) values were reported for binding to CCR3 along with the ability to effectively inhibit intracellular calcium mobilization and eosinophil chemotaxis induced by CCR3 agonist ligands in vitro.

Increasing selectivity of CC chemokine receptor 8 antagonists by engineering nondesolvation related interactions with the intended and off-target binding sites

The metabolic stability and selectivity of a series of CCR8 antagonists against binding to the hERG ion channel and cytochrome Cyp2D6 are studied by principal component analysis. It is demonstrated that an efficient way of increasing metabolic stability and selectivity of this series is to decrease compound lipophilicity by engineering nondesolvation related attractive interactions with CCR8, as rationalized by three-dimensional receptor models. Although such polar interactions led to increased compound selectivity, such a strategy could also jeopardize the DMPK profile of compounds. However, once increased potency is found, the lipophilicity can be readjusted by engineering hydrophobic substituents that fit to CCR8 but do not fit to hERG. Several such lipophilic fragments are identified by two-dimensional fragment-based QSAR analysis. Electrophysiological measurements and site-directed mutagenesis studies indicated that the repulsive interactions of these fragments with hERG are caused by steric hindrances with residue F656.