New quinoline derivatives as nicotinic receptor modulators

As a continuation of previous work on quinoline derivatives, which showed some preference (2-3 times) for the α7 with respect to α4β2 acetylcholine nicotinic receptors (nAChRs), we synthesized a series of novel azabicyclic or diazabicyclic compounds carrying a quinoline or isoquinoline ring, with the aim of searching for more selective α7 nAChR compounds. Radioligand binding studies on α7* and α4β2* nAChRs (rat brain homogenate) revealed one compound (7) with a 2-fold higher affinity for the α4β2*-subtype, and four compounds (11, 13, 14 and 16) with at least 3-fold higher affinity for α7* nAChR. The most promising was 11, showing Ki∼100 nM and over 10-fold selectivity for α7* nAChR. Compounds 7, 11, 13 and 16 at 50 μM suppressed ion currents induced in the rat α4β2 nAChR and the chimeric nAChR composed of the ligand-binding domain of the chick α7 and transmembrane domain of the α1 glycine receptor, expressed in Xenopus oocytes. Calcium imaging experiments on the human α7 nAChR expressed in the Neuro2a cells and potentiated by PNU-120596 confirmed the antagonistic activity for 7; on the contrary, 11, 13 and 16 were agonists with the EC50 values in the range of 1.0-1.6 μM. Thus, the introduced modifications allowed us to enhance the selectivity of quinolines towards α7 nAChR and to get novel compounds with agonistic activity.