Discovery of Spiro[cyclohexane-dihydropyrano[3,4-b]indole]-amines as Potent NOP and Opioid Receptor Agonists
Stefan Schunk1, Klaus Linz1, Sven Frormann1
1Departments of Medicinal Chemistry, Preclinical Drug Safety, Molecular Pharmacology, Pain Pharmacology, Pharmacokinetics, and Discovery Informatics, Global Drug Discovery, Grünenthal Innovation, Grünenthal GmbH , D-52099 Aachen, Germany.
Abstract:
We report the discovery of spiro[cyclohexane-pyrano[3,4-b]indole]-amines, as functional nociceptin/orphanin FQ peptide (NOP) and opioid receptor agonists with strong efficacy in preclinical models of acute and neuropathic pain. Utilizing 4-(dimethylamino)-4-phenylcyclo-hexanone 1 and tryptophol in an oxa-Pictet-Spengler reaction led to the formation of spiroether 2, representing a novel NOP and opioid peptide receptor agonistic chemotype. This finding initially stems from the systematic derivatization of 1, which resulted in alcohols 3-5, ethers 6 and 7, amines 8-10, 22-24, and 26-28, amides 11 and 25, and urea 12, many with low nanomolar binding affinities at the NOP and mu opioid peptide (MOP) receptors.
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