New ligands with affinity for the alpha4beta2 subtype of nicotinic acetylcholine receptors. Synthesis, receptor binding, and 3D-QSAR modeling.

A new series of piperazines, diazepanes, diazocanes, diazabicyclononanes, and diazabicyclodecanes with affinity for the alpha4beta2 subtype of nicotinic acetylcholine receptors were synthesized on the basis of results from a previous computational study. A predictive 3D-QSAR model was developed using the GRID/GOLPE approach (R2 = 0.94, Q2 = 0.83, SDEP = 0.34). The SAR was interpreted in terms of contour maps of the PLS coefficients and in terms of a homology model of the alpha4beta2 subtype of the nicotinic acetylcholine receptors. The results reveal that hydrogen bonding from both hydrogens on the protonated amine and from the pyridine nitrogen to a water molecule as well as van der Waals interactions between the substituent bearing the protonated amine and the receptor is of importance for ligand affinity. The combination of 3D-QSAR and homology modeling proved successful for the interpretation of structure-affinity relationships as well as the validation of the individual modeling approaches.

Endogenous unsaturated C18 N-acylethanolamines are vanilloid receptor (TRPV1) agonists.

The endogenous C18 N-acylethanolamines (NAEs) N-linolenoylethanolamine (18:3 NAE), N-linoleoylethanolamine (18:2 NAE), N-oleoylethanolamine (18:1 NAE), and N-stearoylethanolamine (18:0 NAE) are structurally related to the endocannabinoid anandamide (20:4 NAE), but these lipids are poor ligands at cannabinoid CB(1) receptors. Anandamide is also an activator of the transient receptor potential (TRP) vanilloid 1 (TRPV(1)) on primary sensory neurons. Here we show that C18 NAEs are present in rat sensory ganglia and vascular tissue. With the exception of 18:3 NAE in rat sensory ganglia, the levels of C18 NAEs are equal to or substantially exceed those of anandamide. At submicromolar concentrations, 18:3 NAE, 18:2 NAE, and 18:1 NAE, but not 18:0 NAE and oleic acid, activate native rTRPV(1) on perivascular sensory nerves. 18:1 NAE does not activate these nerves in TRPV(1) gene knock-out mice. Only the unsaturated C18 NAEs elicit whole cell currents and fluorometric calcium responses in HEK293 cells expressing hTRPV(1). Molecular modeling revealed a low energy cluster of U-shaped unsaturated NAE conformers, sharing several pharmacophoric elements with capsaicin. Furthermore, one of the two major low energy conformational families of anandamide also overlaps with the cannabinoid CB(1) receptor ligand HU210, which is in line with anandamide being a dual activator of TRPV(1) and the cannabinoid CB(1) receptor. This study shows that several endogenous non-cannabinoid NAEs, many of which are more abundant than anandamide in rat tissues, activate TRPV(1) and thus may play a role as endogenous TRPV(1) modulators.