Either 5, the commercially available 1-(2-amino-4, 5-
dimethoxyphenyl)ethanone or the amine underwent
synthesized. The IC50 values of 26b and 26e for PDE10A were
2.86 and 9.80 nM respectively, which are similar to the IC50
value we determined for 26a (1.52 nM). When the methoxyl
group at R1 in 26b was replaced by a benzyloxyl group in 26f,
the potency decreased with IC50 values increasing from 2.86 nM
for 26b to 350 nM for 26f. This result was consistent with the
results observed for 13a and 13b, 13c and 13d. When methoxyl
groups at R1 and R2 were either replaced by a cyclized group (-
OCH2O-) in 26c or removed in 26d, compounds 26c and 26d lost
inhibition activity for PDE10A completely. In comparing 26g
and 13c, when the –H group in R3 was substituted with a –Cl
group the potency of the inhibitor improved slightly from 14.0
nM for 13c to 5.52 nM for 26g. Compounds 26h and 26i were
obtained by replacing the methoxyl group of R1 in 26b with a
fluoroproxyl and 2-(oxymethyl)-quinloinyl group, respectively.
The IC50 values increased from 2.86 nM for 12b to 518 and 79.3
nM for 26h and 26i, respectively. This result is consistent with
the results observed for compounds 13a, 13b, 13c and 13d.
Throughout these measurements, the methoxyl group at R1
position of cinnoline structural analogues was critical in retaining
high potency for inhibiting PDE10A. The replacement of a
methoxyl group at R1 with other groups such as –H, -OCH2O-, -
6
diazotization/cyclization, followed by treatment with phosphorus
oxychloride to afforded intermediates 9 or 10, respectively. The
chloro intermediates were treated with 2-fluoro-3-substituted
boronic acid, followed by 4-substituted-4-piperidinol to give the
desired cinnoline PDE10A analogues 13a-d. The benzyl group in
compounds 13b or 13d was removed by using hydrogen under
10% Pd/C to afford hydroxyl containing compounds 14a or 14b.
Compounds 26a-i, which possess substitution groups in the
pyridine ring of cinnoline, were synthesized as shown in Scheme
2. Compound 26a was previously reported by Hu et al.15 The
synthesis of 26a-f and 26h-i used procedures similar to those
described above for 13a-b and 14a-b. The synthesis of
compound 26g was accomplished by the conversion of 4-
(pyridin-3-yl)piperidin-4-ol hydrochloride to compound 25 by
alkylation and Miyaura borylation, followed by Suzuki reaction
to afford the final product, 26g .
The syntheses of benzimidazole PDE10A analogues 33a-f
were accomplished according to Scheme 3. Treatment of
benzimidazole 27 with 4-methoxy benzoyl chloride under basic
conditions to generate compound 28, followed by N-methylation
of benzimidazole afforded compound 29. Deprotection of the
anisole with boron tribromide afforded phenol intermediate 30,
which was treated with 3-bromo-2-chloropyridine to give key
intermediate 31. Compounds 33a-c were obtained by Suzuki
coupling of intermediate 31 with substituted boronic acids.
Benzimidazole derivatives 33d-e were synthesized by two steps:
31 was first converted into the stannyl containing compound 32;
this was followed by Stille coupling of compound 32 with
substituted acyl chlorides to give compounds 33d-e.
OBn, fluoropropoxy, 2-(oxymethyl)-quinolinyl led to
a
significant reduction or a total loss in PDE10A inhibition
activity.
The benzimidazole analogues are structurally distinct from
cinnoline analogues; other benzimidazole inhibitors with high
potency toward PDE10A have been previously reported.18 Six
benzimidazole analogues (33a-f) were synthesized and their IC50
values for PDE10A were determined. In vitro data indicated that
compounds 33a, 33b, and 33c possessing
a phenyl, 4-
methoxyphenyl or heteroaryl substitution group for R1 had higher
inhibition potency for PDE10A; the IC50 values were 18.6 5.3,
8.0 1.38, and 3.73 0.60 nM for compounds 33a, 33b, and
33c, respectively. Optimization of the substituted group in R1
may improve potency for PDE10A. However, imposing a
carbonyl group between the aryl or heteroaryl group and the
skeleton of the benzimidazole resulted in significantly decreased
activity toward PDE10A. Both 33d and 33e lost inhibition
activity for PDE10A; the IC50 value of 33f increased to 1900 nM
as shown in Table 2.
In vitro assays were performed following standard literature
techniques developed by other investigators; the procedure used
here and in our prior studies is detailed in the supplementary
methods.7, 16 Briefly, a scintillation proximity assay (SPA) to was
used to measure the IC50 values of all inhibitors. The tritiated
cyclic nucleotide substrate concentration used in the enzyme
assay was 1/3 of the Km. The potency of each analogue as a PDE
inhibitor was determined by measuring the activity of a fixed
amount of recombinant human PDE enzyme in the presence of
varying inhibitor concentrations. After background subtraction,
counts for samples containing the inhibitors were plotted against
inhibitor concentration to calculate the IC50 values using non-
linear regression analysis. All compounds were independently
assayed at least three times.
Compounds 26a, 26b, and 33c are very potent inhibitors of
PDE10A with IC50 values < 5 nM, so further in vitro assays were
conducted to determine their selectivity. It has been reported that
inhibition of PDE3A/B may cause arrhythmia and increased
20
mortality,19,
inhibition of PDE4A may increase heart and
respiratory rates.21 Although such undesirable side-effects pose
fewer safety concerns for clinical radiotracers in comparison with
therapeutic agents, specificity is important. Therefore, the IC50
values of 26a, 26b and 33c for PDE3A, PDE3B, PDE4A, and
PDE4B were measured to determine their selectivity as PDE10A
inhibitors. The enzyme assays revealed that all three lead
compounds had very weak inhibition activity toward PDE3A/3B,
The IC50 values of the fifteen cinnoline analogues (13a-d,
14a-b, and 26a-i) and six benzimidazole analogues (33a-f) for
PDE10A are shown in Table 1 and Table 2. Among the
cinnoline analogues, for compounds 13a, 13b, and 14a, the
potency of substituted inhibitors for PDE10A showed in a
decreasing order OCH3> OBn > OH; the IC50 values of 13a, 13b,
and 14a were 18.4, 4,250, and 10,800 nM, respectively. Although
compounds 13c, 13d, and 14b have a pyridine-3-yl group instead
of a methyl group at the R3 position, a similarly decreasing trend
for PDE10A inhibition was observed for compounds 13c, 13d,
and 14b with IC50 values of 14, 1,550, and 6,620 nM,
respectively. The known compound 13c17 was also synthesized
and its IC50 value was determined to ensure the tests results are
comparable with published values. Compound 26a has methyl
group instead of the –H group at the R3 position compound 13c;
this led to the 9.2-fold increased potency of the IC50 value from
14.0 nM for 13c to 1.52 nM for 26a. The pyridine-3-yl group at
R4 position of 26a was replaced by a 2-fluoro-pyrindin-5-yl
group to give 26b; the chlorine-substituted analogue 26e was also
PDE4A/B with > 1000-fold selectivity for PDE10A vs.
PDE3A/B and PDE4A/B, as shown in Table 3.
Overall, fifteen cinnoline and six benzimidazole analogues
were synthesized and screened for their in vitro activity as
PDE10A inhibitors. Nine of the twenty-one compounds showed
high in vitro potency for PDE10A with IC50 values ranging from
1.52 to 18.6 nM. The three most potent compounds 26a, 26b, and
33c have IC50 values of 1.52 0.18, 2.86 0.10, and 3.73 0.60
nM, respectively; in addition, these three compounds have >
1000-fold selectivity for PDE10A over PDE3A/B and PDE4A/B
and are structurally suitable compounds for labeling with PET