Synthesis and biological evaluation of GPR40/FFAR1 agonists containing 3,5-dimethylisoxazole

GPR40 is an attractive target due to its glucose-stimulated insulin secretion effect with low risk of causing hypoglycemia, which also can be seen from the clinical studies using TAK-875 (fasiglifam). In the present studies, we discovered a series of analogues containing 3,5-dimethylisoxazole as potent GPR40 agonists, especially compound 11k with an EC50 value of 15.9 nM. Moreover, compound 11k reduced glucose excursion to 23.1% in ICR mice and 29.5% in type 2 diabetic C57BL/6 mice at 30 mg/kg. It also exhibited satisfactory PK profile. Docking studies were conducted to explain the interaction mode of this series. In summary, compound 11k with robust efficacy in vitro and in vivo is a promising drug candidate for further investigation.