A series of mono- and per-6-substituted cyclodextrin derivatives were synthesized as synthetic receptors (or host molecules) of rocuronium bromide, the most widely used neuromuscular blocker in anaesthesia. By forming host-guest complexes with rocuronium, these cyclodextrin derivatives reverse the muscle relaxation induced by rocuronium in vitro and in vivo and therefore can be used as reversal agents of the neuromuscular blocker to assist rapid recovery of patients after surgery. Because this supramolecular mechanism of action does not involve direct interaction with the cholinergic system, the reversal by these compounds, e.g., compound 14 (Org 25969), is not accompanied by cardiovascular side effects usually attendant with acetylcholinesterase inhibitors such as neostigmine. The structure-activity relationships are consistent with this supramolecular mechanism of action and are discussed herein. These include the effects of binding cavity size and hydrophobic and electrostatic interaction on the reversal activities of these compounds.

Drug discovery faces economic and scientific imperatives to deliver lead molecules rapidly and efficiently. Using traditional paradigms the molecular design, synthesis, and screening loops enforce a significant time delay leading to inefficient use of data in the iterative molecular design process. Here, we report the application of a flow technology platform integrating the key elements of structure-activity relationship (SAR) generation to the discovery of novel Abl kinase inhibitors. The platform utilizes flow chemistry for rapid in-line synthesis, automated purification, and analysis coupled with bioassay. The combination of activity prediction using Random-Forest regression with chemical space sampling algorithms allows the construction of an activity model that refines itself after every iteration of synthesis and biological result. Within just 21 compounds, the automated process identified a novel template and hinge binding motif with pIC50 > 8 against Abl kinase--both wild type and clinically relevant mutants. Integrated microfluidic synthesis and screening coupled with machine learning design have the potential to greatly reduce the time and cost of drug discovery within the hit-to-lead and lead optimization phases.

The Baylis-Hillman reaction, the coupling of an unsaturated carbonyl compound/nitrile with aldehydes, is a valuable reaction but is limited in its practicality by poor reaction rates. We have endeavored to accelerate the reaction using Lewis acids and found that while conventional Lewis acids gave reduced rates group III, and lanthanide triflates (5 mol %) gave increased rates. The optimum metal salts were La(OTf)(3) and Sm(OTf)(3), which gave rate accelerations (k(rel)) of approximately 4.7 and 4.9, respectively, in reactions between tert-butyl acrylate and benzaldehyde when using stoichiometric amounts of DABCO. At low loadings of DABCO (up to 10 mol %), no reaction occurred due to association of DABCO with the metal. Use of additional ligands to displace the DABCO from the metal was studied, and the rate of reaction was found to increase further in most cases. Of the ligands tested, at 5 mol %, (+)-binol gave one of the largest rate accelerations (3.4-fold) and was studied in more detail. It was found that reactions occurred even at low DABCO concentration so that here the Lewis base and Lewis acid were able to promote the reaction without interference from each other. While the (+)-binol (and other chiral ligands) failed to provide any significant asymmetric induction, a substantial nonlinear effect was observed with binol. Thus, use of racemic binol gave no effect on the rate. In seeking to maximize the rate attainable, more soluble (liquid) ligands were studied. Diethyl tartrate and triethanolamine gave rate enhancements of 5.2x and 3.5x at 50 mol %, respectively, versus 1.5x and 2.3x at 5 mol %. The best protocol was to use 100 mol % DABCO, 50 mol % triethanolamine, and 5 mol % La(OTf)(3). This gave overall rate accelerations of between 23-fold and 40-fold depending on the acrylate and approximately 5-fold for acrylonitrile. A simple acid wash removed the reagents, leaving the product in the organic phase. While triethanolamine accelerated the reaction without the lanthanum triflate (18-22-fold at 80 mol %), the reaction in the presence of the metal salt was faster. The system was tested synthetically on various substrates and found to give good rate accelerations with both activated (benzaldehyde and p-nitrobenzaldehyde) and less activated aldehydes (anisaldehyde and cyclohexanecarboxaldehyde) with acrylates. The limited amount of dimerized acrylate in the latter reactions is noteworthy and should extend the range of substrates that can be made by the Baylis-Hillman reaction using our optimum conditions.

A novel integrated discovery platform has been used to synthesize and biologically assay a series of xanthine-derived dipeptidyl peptidase 4 (DPP4) antagonists. Design, synthesis, purification, quantitation, dilution, and bioassay have all been fully integrated to allow continuous automated operation. The system has been validated against a set of known DPP4 inhibitors and shown to give excellent correlation between traditional medicinal chemistry generated biological data and platform data. Each iterative loop of synthesis through biological assay took two hours in total, demonstrating rapid iterative structure-activity relationship generation.

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