Design and synthesis of novel ROR inverse agonists with a dibenzosilole scaffold as a hydrophobic core structure

Molecular structure calculations indicated that the dibenzosilole skeleton could be well superposed on phenanthridinone, which is a structural component of ligands of retinoic acid receptor-related orphan receptors (RORs). Therefore, we designed, synthesized and biologically evaluated a series of novel ROR ligands based on the dibenzosilole scaffold as a hydrophobic core structure. Dibenzosilole derivatives bearing a hexafluoro-2-hydroxypropyl group on the benzene ring exhibited significant ROR-inhibitory activity, comparable to that of the lead phenanthridinone derivative 5. Our results indicate that the dibenzosilole skeleton would be a useful scaffold for developing novel biologically active compounds, and that cis-amide structure can be replaced by an alkylsilyl functionality.