Brief Article
Journal of Medicinal Chemistry, 2009, Vol. 52, No. 21 6929
Experimental Section
Reagents and solvents were purchased from Aldrich or
Lancaster and used as received. NMR Spectra: Jeol Lambda-
270-MHz instrument: 1H at 270 MHz, with TMS as an internal
standard. Only representative examples of the synthesis are
shown. Oxalate salts were formed prior to pharmacological
evaluation. Tested compounds had purity g95%.
N-Cyclopropylmethyl-14β-[phenylpropioloylamino]-7,8-dihy-
dronorcodeinone (9a). Oxalyl chloride (8.8 equiv) and phenyl-
propiolic acid (1.1 equiv) in anhydrous toluene were heated at
reflux for 1 h. The solvent was removed, the residue dissolved in
anhyd CH2Cl2, added dropwise to a solution of 18b (1 equiv)
and triethylamine (1.1 equiv) in anhyd CH2Cl2, and stirred at rt
overnight. The solvent was removed and the crude residue
purified by column chromatography to yield a white solid
(71%); Rf (CH2Cl2:MeOH, 50:1) 0.26. 1H NMR (CDCl3) 0.21
(2H, m), 0.60 (2H, m), 0.89 (1H, m), 2.32-2.52 (2H, m), 3.10
(1H, d), 3.88 (3H, s), 4.95 (1H, s), 6.63 (1H, d), 6.74 (1H, d), 7.30
(1H), 7.35-7.61 (5H, m).
N-Cyclopropylmethyl-14β-[phenylpropioloylamino]-7,8-dihy-
dronormorphinone (8a). To the codeinone (9a) in anhyd
CH2Cl2 at -30 °C under N2, was added BBr3 (6 equiv, 1 M in
CH2Cl2) slowly. The reaction was allowed to reach rt over 1 h
before adding a 1:1 mixture of ice:ammonia (concd). The
organic phase was isolated, the aqueous layer washed (ꢀ3) with
CHCl3:MeOH (3:1), the combined organic fractions washed
with brine, dried, and evaporated to dryness. Column chroma-
tography gave 8a as a white solid (72%); Rf (CH2Cl2: MeOH,
20:1) 0.47. 1H NMR (DMSO) 0.25 (2H, m), 0.62 (2H, m), 0.92
(1H, m), 3.10 (1H, d), 5.01 (1H, s), 6.61 (1H, d), 6.80 (1H, d), 7.38
(5H, m).
Figure 3. Antagonist selectivity of 8b (3.2 mg/kg) against ED100
doses of the selective agonists morphine (MOR), BW373U86
(DOR) and bremazocine (KOR) in the mouse abdominal stretch
(AS) assay after 24 h pretreatment. ** p < 0.01 compared to
morphine. ¼¼ p < 0.01 compared to control (8b alone), which
was not different from vehicle (saline). One way ANOVA with
Dunnett’s posthoc test.
cinnamoylamino equivalents (2a, 2c).1 When the morphine
dose-response curve was determined 4 days after admini-
stration of a 32 mg/kg dose of the test antagonist, 2a shifted
the dose-response curve about 5-fold to the right,11 whereas
in the present study, the same dose of 8b in the same protocol
resulted in a 12-fold shift (Table 3).
N-Cyclopropylmethyl-14β-[30-(400-chlorophenyl)-propargyl-
amino]-7,8-dihydronormorphinone (10). 18a was treated with
3-(40-chlorophenyl)propargyl bromide (17, 1.1 equiv) in the
presence of potassium carbonate (5 equiv) in dimethylforma-
mide at 90 °C for 12 h. The solvent was removed and the crude
residue was purified by column chromatography to afford 10 as
There is perhaps greater difference in in vivo activity
between the arylpropiolylamino codeinones (9a, 9b) and the
corresponding cinnamoylamino codeinones (3a, 3c). Whereas
9b had no antinociceptive activity in TW or AS, 3a, though
having no agonist activity in TW, has potent antinociceptive
activity in AS, being fully effective at 0.2 mg/kg.1,12,13 Simi-
larlytheMOR partialagonism shown in vivoby3cisofhigher
efficacy than that of 9a in the present study.1 Thus it appears
that the conformationally linear side chains of the arylpro-
piolylamino derivatives (8, 9) are associated with lower MOR
efficacy and more profound MOR antagonism than the
equivalent cinnamoylamino derivatives (2, 3). This suggests
that for antagonism, the optimum position for the lipoph-
ilic aryl moiety is further from C14 than is achieved in
the cinnamoyl derivatives. Rennison et al.2 showed that the
14β-phenylbutylamidomorphinone (12), with a longer spacer
between C14 and the aryl group, was more effective than
C-CAM in flattening the dose-response curve of DAMGO in
a [35S]GTPγS binding assay.
1
a white solid (63%); Rf 0.42 (CH2Cl2:MeOH, 20:1). H NMR
(CDCl3) δ 0.18 (2H, m), 0.54 (2H, m), 0.89 (1H, m), 3.06 (1H, d),
3.57 (2H, s), 4.70 (1H, s), 6.60 (1H, d), 6.71 (1H, d), 7.29 (2H, d),
7.37 (2H, d).
Acknowledgment. NIDA grants DA00254 and DA07315.
In vitro evaluation through the NIDA Abuse Treatment
Discovery Program (ATDP).
Supporting Information Available: Full experimental details,
including biological assay methods and microanalysis data. This
material is available free of charge via the Internet at http://
pubs.acs.org.
In the present study, there was pronounced similarity in
OR binding and in vitro profiles between the p-chlorophenyl-
propiolylamino derivatives (8b, 9b) and the p-chlorophenyl-
propargylamino derivatives (10, 11). In this respect, the SAR
followed that established by Rennison et al.2 for a range
of 14-acylamino- (6) and 14-alkylaminomorphinones and
codeinones (7).
References
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Conclusions
The 14β-arylpropiolylamino morphinones and codeinones
of the present study provide further examples of pseudoirre-
versible MOR antagonists comparable to the previously
reported clocinnamox and methcinnamox. The SAR of the
new series is very similar to that of the equivalent cinnamoyl-
amino series, but there are trends to lower MOR efficacy and
more profound antagonism.
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