Epimeric
series of aryl-substituted glucopyranosylidene-spiro-imidazolinones,
an unprecedented new ring system, were synthesized from the corresponding
Schiff bases of O-perbenzoylated (gluculopyranosylamine)onamides
by intramolecular ring closure of the aldimine moieties with the carboxamide
group elicited by N-bromosuccinimide in pyridine.
Test compounds were obtained by Zemplén O-debenzoylation.
Stereochemistry and ring tautomers of the new compounds were investigated
by NMR, time-dependent density functional theory (TDDFT)-electronic
circular dichroism, and DFT-NMR methods. Kinetic studies with rabbit
muscle and human liver glycogen phosphorylases showed that the (R)-imidazolinones were 14–216 times more potent than
the (S) epimers. The 2-naphthyl-substituted (R)-imidazolinone was the best inhibitor of the human enzyme
(K
i 1.7 μM) and also acted on HepG2
cells (IC50 177 μM). X-ray crystallography revealed
that only the (R) epimers bound in the crystal. Their
inhibitory efficacy is based on the hydrogen-bonding interactions
of the carbonyl oxygen and the NH of the imidazolinone ring.