The local anesthetic activity of Aconitum alkaloids can be explained by their structural properties: a QSAR analysis

Alkaloids isolated from Aconitum roots exhibit anesthetic effects at peripheral nerves. We performed the present quantitative structure-activity relationship (QSAR) analysis in order to understand the mechanism of action as local anesthetics of 11 Aconitum alkaloids. The alkaloids with the highest anesthetic activity had an aroyl/aroyloxy group at R14 position while the weaker anesthetic alkaloids had the aroyloxy group at R4. The stable compounds exhibited a higher local anesthetic activity than the unstable compounds. In relation to the reactivity indexes of atoms on the aromatic ring, C2' was more reactive while C3' and C5' were less reactive in the compounds with the highest anesthetic activity. Reactivity of N, C1', C4' and C6' was similar between the two groups of alkaloids. The pKa was approximately 7.3 in both groups. The local anesthetic ED50 of alkaloids was significantly inversely related to molecular weight, core-core repulsion energy, steric energy and RI-C2', and directly related to electronic energy, total energy, RI-C5' and to the heat of formation. In conclusion, we identified a set of structural parameters that are related to the local anesthetic activity of Aconitum alkaloids. Our findings are useful to understand the mechanism of action of these alkaloids and to provide a rational for chemical manipulation of the compounds in order to obtain potent derivates with minor toxicity.