The leukotriene A4 hydrolase enzyme is a dual functioning enzyme with the following two catalytic activities: an epoxide hydrolase function that transforms the lipid metabolite leukotriene A4 to leukotriene B4 and an aminopeptidase function that hydrolyzes short peptides. To date, all drug discovery efforts have focused on the epoxide hydrolase activity of the enzyme, because of extensive biological characterization of the pro- inflammatory properties of its metabolite, leukotriene B4. Herein, we have designed a small molecule, 4-methoxydiphenylmethane, as a pharmacological agent that is bioavailable and augments the aminopeptidase activity of the leukotriene A4 hydrolase enzyme. Pre-clinical evaluation of our drug showed protection against intranasal elastase-induced pulmonary emphysema in murine models.

The development of new methods for preparing nitrogen five-membered rings, such as pyrrolidine and pyrrole derivatives,* 1 continues to be an active research area, since they are useful intermediates for the synthesis of many natural products.

Hermitamides A and B are lipopeptides isolated from a Papau New Guinea collection of the marine cyanobacterium Lyngbya majuscula. We hypothesized that the hermitamides are ligands for the human voltage-gated sodium channel (hNaV) based on their structural similarity to the jamaicamides. Herein, we describe the nonracemic total synthesis of hermitamides A and B and their epimers. We report the ability of the hermitamides to displace [3H]-BTX at 10 μM more potently than phenytoin, a clinically used sodium channel blocker, a potential binding mode for (S)-hermitamide B in the BTX-binding site, and electrophysiology showing that these compounds are potent blockers of the hNav1.2 voltage-gated sodium channel.

(RS)-Amisulpride generalized to some, but not all benzamide derivatives, and it failed to generalize to any other antipsychotic, antidepressant, or antianxiety drugs tested. Interestingly, the (R)-isomer shared very strong stimulus properties with (RS)-amisulpride. This finding was in contrast to findings from Donahue et al. (Eur J Pharmacol 734:15-22, 2014), which found that the (R)-isomer did not share very strong stimulus properties when the (S)-isomer was the training drug.

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