Mexiletine is a class Ib antiarrhythmic drug and is also used clinically to reduce or prevent myotonia. In addition, mexiletine has neuroprotective effects in models of brain ischemia. We compared state-dependent affinities of mexiletine for Na v 1.2, Na v 1.4, and Na v 1.5 and examined the effects of mutations of transmembrane segment S6 residues on mexiletine block of Na v 1.5. Three channel isoforms had similar affinities of mexiletine for the rested state, and Na v 1.4 and Na v 1.5 had similar affinities for the open and inactivated states, while Na v 1.2 had lower affinity for these states than Na v 1.4 and Na v 1.5. Mutational studies revealed that the largest affinity change was observed for an Ala substitution of Phe in domain IV S6. In our homology modeling based on the bacterial Na 1 channel, mexiletine changed its location and orientation in the pore depending on the state of the channel, irrespective of the channel isoform. Mexiletine occurred in the upper part in the pore in the open state and lower in the closed state. High-affinity binding of mexiletine in the open states of Na v 1.4 and Na v 1.5 was caused by a p-p interaction with Phe, whereas mexiletine was located away from Phe in the open state of Na v 1.2. These results provide crucial information on the mechanism of isoform differences in state-dependent block by local anesthetics and related drugs. Mexiletine at upper locations in the open state may effectively cause an electrostatic mechanism of block.

Perchloric acid treatment of sarcophytoxide, a marine cembranoid possessing an epoxide, brought about epoxideketone rearrangement affording ketones. When the reaction time was long (22 h), a minor ketone that was antipodal to the ketone obtained in a short-time (10 min) reaction was formed. These puzzling findings, considering that the starting epoxide had three asymmetric carbons, were interpreted by surveying the structures of other ketonic products. The stereochemistry of a major ketone, which had been wrongly assigned, was corrected by extensive analyses of NMR spectra. The correct stereochemistry indicated that the epoxide-ketone rearrangement took a course via a cationic intermediate.

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[reaction: see text] Treatment of sarcophytoxide with trimethylsilyl trifluoromethanesulfonate afforded an aromatic ketone as an unusual cyclization product. The modified Mosher's method and X-ray analysis performed on the aromatic ketone revealed that it is a 4:1 mixture of 8(R)- and 8(S)-enantiomers. It also suggested that the precursor ketone has 8(R)-configuration, which is contradictory to that expected from the ordinary epoxide-ketone rearrangement.