Substituted 2-bromobenzaldehydes were synthesized from benzaldehydes using a three-step sequence involving a selective palladium-catalyzed ortho-bromination as the key step. O-Methyloxime serves as a directing group in this reaction. A rapid deprotection of substituted 2-bromobenzaldoximes afforded substituted 2-bromobenzaldehydes with good overall yields.

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The work described herein aims at finding new potential ligands for the brain imaging of 5-HT4 receptors using single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT). Starting from the non-substituted phenanthridine compound 4a exhibiting a Ki value of 51 nM on 5-HT4R, we explored structure-affinity in this series. We found that substitution in position 4 of the tricycle with a fluorine atom gave the best result. Introduction of an additional nitrogen atom inside the tricyclic framework led to increase both the affinity and the selectivity for 5-HT4R suggesting the design of the antagonist 4v exhibiting a high affinity of 0.04 nM. Several iodinated analogues were then synthesized as potential SPECT tracers. The iodinated compound 11d was able to displace the reference radioiodinated 5-HT4R antagonist (1-butylpiperidin-4-yl)methyl-8-amino-7-iodo[123I]-2,3-dihydrobenzo[b][1,4]dioxine-5-carboxylate ([123I]1, [123I]SB 207710) both in vitro and in vivo in brain. Compound 11d was radiolabeled with [125I]iodine, providing a potential SPECT candidate for brain imaging of 5-HT4R.