Methyl 1H-pyrazolo(3,4-b)pyridine-5-carboxylate

A series of ethyl 4-amino-1-(2-chloro-2-phenylethyl)-6-oxo-6,7-dihydro-1H-pyrazolo[3,4-b]pyridine-5-carboxylates () has been synthesized as potential A(1) adenosine receptor (A(1) AR) ligands. Binding affinities of the new compounds were determined for adenosine A(1), A(2A) and A(3) receptors. Compounds and showed good affinity (K(i)= 299 nM and 517 nM, respectively) and selectivity towards A(1) AR, whereas showed good affinity for A(2A) AR (K(i)= 290 nM), higher than towards A(1) AR (K(i)= 1000 nM). The only arylamino derivative of the series displayed high affinity (K(i)= 4.6 nM) and selectivity for A(3) AR. Molecular modelling and 3D-QSAR (CoMFA) studies carried out on the most active compounds gave further support to the pharmacological results.

In this study we developed a refined pharmacophore model for antagonists of the human adenosine A1 receptor, based on features of known pyrimidine and purine derivatives. The adoption of these updated criteria assisted us in synthesizing a series of 1-deazapurines with consistently high affinity as inverse agonists for the adenosine A1 receptor. These 1-deazapurines (otherwise known as 3H-imidazo[4,5-b]pyridines) were substituted at their 2- and 6-positions, yielding a series with five of the derivatives displaying Ki values in the subnanomolar range. The most potent of these, compound 10 (LUF 5978), displayed an affinity of 0.55 nM at the human adenosine A1 receptor with >300-fold and 45-fold selectivity toward A2A and A3 receptors, respectively. Compound 14 (LUF 5981, Ki = 0.90 nM) appeared to have the best overall selectivity with respect to adenosine A2A (>200-fold) and A3 (700-fold) receptors.

Sixty-eight new substituted pyrazolo[3,4-b]pyridine derivatives were synthesized and tested for enriching a library of active A(1) adenosine receptor (AR) antagonists belonging to the same class. These compounds were also used as an external test set to check the reliability of a 3D QSAR model recently reported by us. To investigate the binding mode of pyrazolopyridine derivatives, a model of the bovine A(1)AR (bA(1)AR) was developed by a novel homology modeling approach and used to evaluate the main interactions of the ligands with the receptor through docking studies. Results suggest important interactions of the ligands mainly with L3.33(88), T3.36(91), Q3.37(92) and H6.52(251), in agreement with mutagenesis data. The racemic mixture of the most active compound was separated into the corresponding enantiomers which showed a bA(1)AR affinity in the nanomolar range, with the R enantiomer sevenfold more active than the S enantiomer, according to results derived from calculations on the receptor model. Analysis of the bovine/human A(1)AR affinity profile of ligands supported the hypothesis that such receptors should be characterized by a different size of their binding site, responsible for the different affinity of the antagonists.