Design, synthesis and biological evaluation of some 2-azetidinone derivatives as potential antihyperlipidemic agents

In an effort to develop new molecules with improved antihyperlipidemic activity, eight new 2-azetidinone analogs (4a-4h) of ezetimibe were designed through in silico docking experiments with the crystal structure of the Niemann-Pick C1-like 1 protein (NPC1L1). Synthesis and further antihyperlipdemic evaluation of this series in the Triton WR 1339 induced hyperlipidemic rat model showed some of the molecules to exhibit significant lipid-lowering effects comparable to ezetimibe. Correlation between the observed biological activity and the in silico molecular docking scores of the compounds was observed.