Synthesis and Biological Evaluation of 2-Amino-3-(4-chlorobenzoyl)-4-[(4-arylpiperazin-1-yl)methyl]-5-substituted-thiophenes. Effect of the 5-Modification on Allosteric Enhancer Activity at the A1 Adenosine Receptor

2-Amino-5-arylethynyl-thiophen-3-yl-(phenyl)methanones as A1 Adenosine Receptor Positive Allosteric Modulators

A1 adenosine receptor (A1AR) agonists have cerebroprotective, cardioprotective, antinociceptive, and other pharmaceutical applications. We explored the structure-activity relationship of 5-arylethynyl aminothiophenes as A1AR positive allosteric modulators (PAMs). The derivatives were compared in binding and functional assays at the human A1AR, indicating that some fluoro-substituted analogues have enhanced PAM activity. We identified substitution of the terminal phenyl ring in 12 (2-F-Ph), 15 (3,4-F2-Ph, MRS7935), and 21 (2-CF3-Ph) as particularly enhancing the PAM activity. 15 was also shown to act as an A1 ago-PAM with EC50 ≈ 2 μM, without activity (30 μM) at other ARs. Molecular modeling indicated that both the 5-arylethynyl and the 4-neopentyl groups are located in a region outside the receptor transmembrane helix bundle that is in contact with the phospholipid bilayer, consistent with the preference for nonpolar substitution of the aryl moiety. Although they are hydrophobic, these PAMs could provide potential drug candidate molecules for engaging protective A1ARs.

Adenosine Receptors as Potential Therapeutic Analgesic Targets

Pain represents an international burden and a major socio-economic public health problem. New findings, detailed in this review, suggest that adenosine plays a significant role in neuropathic and inflammatory pain, by acting on its metabotropic adenosine receptors (A1AR, A2AAR, A2BAR, A3AR). Adenosine receptor ligands have a practical translational potential based on the favorable efficacy and safety profiles that emerged from clinical research on various agonists and antagonists for different pathologies. The present review collects the latest studies on selected adenosine receptor ligands in different pain models. Here, we also covered the many hypothesized pathways and the role of newly synthesized allosteric adenosine receptor modulators. This review aims to present a summary of recent research on adenosine receptors as prospective therapeutic targets for a range of pain-related disorders.

Small molecule allosteric modulation of the adenosine A1 receptor

G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) represent the target for approximately a third of FDA-approved small molecule drugs. The adenosine A₁ receptor (A₁R), one of four adenosine GPCR subtypes, has important (patho)physiological roles in humans. A₁R has well-established roles in the regulation of the cardiovascular and nervous systems, where it has been identified as a potential therapeutic target for a number of conditions, including cardiac ischemia-reperfusion injury, cognition, epilepsy, and neuropathic pain. A₁R small molecule drugs, typically orthosteric ligands, have undergone clinical trials. To date, none have progressed into the clinic, predominantly due to dose-limiting unwanted effects. The development of A₁R allosteric modulators that target a topographically distinct binding site represent a promising approach to overcome current limitations. Pharmacological parameters of allosteric ligands, including affinity, efficacy and cooperativity, can be optimized to regulate A₁R activity with high subtype, spatial and temporal selectivity. This review aims to offer insights into the A₁R as a potential therapeutic target and highlight recent advances in the structural understanding of A₁R allosteric modulation.

Update on the recent development of allosteric modulators for adenosine receptors and their therapeutic applications

Adenosine receptors (ARs) have been identified as promising therapeutic targets for countless pathological conditions, spanning from inflammatory diseases to central nervous system disorders, from cancer to metabolic diseases, from cardiovascular pathologies to respiratory diseases, and beyond. This extraordinary therapeutic potential is mainly due to the plurality of pathophysiological actions of adenosine and the ubiquitous expression of its receptors. This is, however, a double-edged sword that makes the clinical development of effective ligands with tolerable side effects difficult. Evidence of this is the low number of AR agonists or antagonists that have reached the market. An alternative approach is to target allosteric sites via allosteric modulators, compounds endowed with several advantages over orthosteric ligands. In addition to the typical advantages of allosteric modulators, those acting on ARs could benefit from the fact that adenosine levels are elevated in pathological tissues, thus potentially having negligible effects on normal tissues where adenosine levels are maintained low. Several A1 and various A3AR allosteric modulators have been identified so far, and some of them have been validated in different preclinical settings, achieving promising results. Less fruitful, instead, has been the discovery of A2A and A2BAR allosteric modulators, although the results obtained up to now are encouraging. Collectively, data in the literature suggests that allosteric modulators of ARs could represent valuable pharmacological tools, potentially able to overcome the limitations of orthosteric ligands.

Targeting Adenosine Receptors: A Potential Pharmacological Avenue for Acute and Chronic Pain

Adenosine is a purine nucleoside, responsible for the regulation of multiple physiological and pathological cellular and tissue functions by activation of four G protein-coupled receptors (GPCR), namely A₁, A_2A, A_2B, and A₃ adenosine receptors (ARs). In recent years, extensive progress has been made to elucidate the role of adenosine in pain regulation. Most of the antinociceptive effects of adenosine are dependent upon A₁AR activation located at peripheral, spinal, and supraspinal sites. The role of A_2AAR and A_2BAR is more controversial since their activation has both pro- and anti-nociceptive effects. A₃AR agonists are emerging as promising candidates for neuropathic pain. Although their therapeutic potential has been demonstrated in diverse preclinical studies, no AR ligands have so far reached the market. To date, novel pharmacological approaches such as adenosine regulating agents and allosteric modulators have been proposed to improve efficacy and limit side effects enhancing the effect of endogenous adenosine. This review aims to provide an overview of the therapeutic potential of ligands interacting with ARs and the adenosinergic system for the treatment of acute and chronic pain.

The Detrimental Action of Adenosine on Glutamate-Induced Cytotoxicity in PC12 Cells Can Be Shifted towards a Neuroprotective Role through A1AR Positive Allosteric Modulation

Glutamate cytotoxicity is implicated in neuronal death in different neurological disorders including stroke, traumatic brain injury, and neurodegenerative diseases. Adenosine is a nucleoside that plays an important role in modulating neuronal activity and its receptors have been identified as promising therapeutic targets for glutamate cytotoxicity. The purpose of this study is to elucidate the role of adenosine and its receptors on glutamate-induced injury in PC12 cells and to verify the protective effect of the novel A₁ adenosine receptor positive allosteric modulator, TRR469. Flow cytometry experiments to detect apoptosis revealed that adenosine has a dual role in glutamate cytotoxicity, with A_2A and A_2B adenosine receptor (AR) activation exacerbating and A₁ AR activation improving glutamate-induced cell injury. The overall effect of endogenous adenosine in PC12 cells resulted in a facilitating action on glutamate cytotoxicity, as demonstrated by the use of adenosine deaminase and selective antagonists. However, enhancing the action of endogenous adenosine on A₁ARs by TRR469 completely abrogated glutamate-mediated cell death, caspase 3/7 activation, ROS production, and mitochondrial membrane potential loss. Our results indicate a novel potential therapeutic strategy against glutamate cytotoxicity based on the positive allosteric modulation of A₁ARs.

Allosteric Modulation of Class A GPCRs: Targets, Agents, and Emerging Concepts

G-protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) have been tractable drug targets for decades with over one-third of currently marketed drugs targeting GPCRs. Of these, the class A GPCR superfamily is highly represented, and continued drug discovery for this family of receptors may provide novel therapeutics for a vast range of diseases. GPCR allosteric modulation is an innovative targeting approach that broadens the available small molecule toolbox and is proving to be a viable drug discovery strategy, as evidenced by recent FDA approvals and clinical trials. Numerous class A GPCR allosteric modulators have been discovered recently, and emerging trends such as the availability of GPCR crystal structures, diverse functional assays, and structure-based computational approaches are improving optimization and development. This Perspective provides an update on allosterically targeted class A GPCRs and their disease indications and the medicinal chemistry approaches toward novel allosteric modulators and highlights emerging trends and opportunities in the field.

Transition-Metal-Free Sulfuration/Annulation of Alkenes: Economical Access to Thiophenes Enabled by the Cleavage of Multiple C-H Bonds

A novel, atom economical, and transition-metal-free strategy for the synthesis of thiophenes from substituted buta-1-enes with potassium sulfide has been presented. The reaction achieves double C-S bond formations via cleavage of multiple C-H bonds and provides an efficient approach to access various functionalized thiophenes. Moreover, the strategy can also be used for the synthesis of thiophenes from 1,4-diaryl-1,3-dienes. Mechanistically, DMSO plays a role of oxidant and S₃^•- in situ generated from K₂S is involved.

2-Aminothiophene scaffolds: Diverse biological and pharmacological attributes in medicinal chemistry

2-Aminothiophenes are important five-membered heterocyclic building blocks in organic synthesis, and the chemistry of these small molecules is still developing based on the discovery of cyclization by Gewald. Another attractive feature of 2-aminothiophene scaffolds is their ability to act as synthons for the synthesis of biological active thiophene-containing heterocycles, conjugates and hybrids. Currently, the biological actions of 2-aminothiophenes or their 2-N-substituted analogues are still being investigated because of their various mechanisms of action (e.g., pharmacophore and pharmacokinetic properties). Likewise, the 2-aminothiophene family is used as diverse promising selective inhibitors, receptors, and modulators in medicinal chemistry, and these compounds even exhibit effective pharmacological properties in the various clinical phases of appropriate diseases. In this review, major biological and pharmacological reports on 2-aminothiophenes and related compounds have been highlighted; most perspective drug-candidate hits were selected for discussion and described, along with additional synthetic pathways. In addition, we focused on the literature dedicated to 2-aminothiophenes and 2-N-substituted derivatives, which have been published from 2010 to 2017.

Current status of A1 adenosine receptor allosteric enhancers

Adenosine is an ubiquitous nucleoside involved in various physiological and pathological functions by stimulating A1, A2A, A2B and A3 adenosine receptors (ARs). Allosteric enhancers to A1ARs may represent novel therapeutic agents because they increase the activity of these receptors by mediating a shift to their active form in the A1AR-G protein ternary complex. In this manner, they are able to amplify the action of endogenous adenosine, which is produced in high concentrations under conditions of metabolic stress. A1AR allosteric enhancers could be used as a justifiable alternative to the exogenous agonists that are characterized by receptor desensitization and downregulation. In this review, an analysis of some of the most interesting allosteric modulators of A1ARs has been reported.

Synthesis and biological evaluation of a new series of 2-amino-3-aroyl thiophene derivatives as agonist allosteric modulators of the A1 adenosine receptor. A position-dependent effect study

The 2-amino-3-(p-chlorobenzoyl)thiophene scaffold has been widely employed as a pharmacophore for the identification of small molecules acting as allosteric modulators at the adenosine A1 receptor. A new series of 2-amino-3-(p-chlorobenzoyl)-4-benzyl-5-arylthiophene derivatives, characterized by the absence as well as the presence of electron-releasing or electron-withdrawing groups on the phenyl ring at the 4- and 5-positions of the thiophene ring, were identified as positive allosteric enhancers at the adenosine A1 receptor in binding (saturation, competition and dissociation kinetics) and functional assays. To better understand the positional requirements of substituents on the 2-amino-3-(p-chlorobenzoyl)thiophene core, the corresponding regioisomeric 4-aryl-5-benzylthiophene analogues were synthesized and found to possess reduced allosteric enhancer activity.

Design, synthesis, and biological evaluation of novel 2-((2-(4-(substituted)phenylpiperazin-1-yl)ethyl)amino)-5'-N-ethylcarboxamidoadenosines as potent and selective agonists of the A2A adenosine receptor

Stimulation of A2A adenosine receptors (AR) promotes anti-inflammatory responses in animal models of allergic rhinitis, asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and rheumatic diseases. Herein we describe the results of a research program aimed at identifying potent and selective agonists of the A2AAR as potential anti-inflammatory agents. The recent crystallographic analysis of A2AAR agonists and antagonists in complex with the receptor provided key information on the structural determinants leading to receptor activation or blocking. In light of this, we designed a new series of 2-((4-aryl(alkyl)piperazin-1-yl)alkylamino)-5'-N-ethylcarboxamidoadenosines with high A2AAR affinity, activation potency and selectivity obtained by merging distinctive structural elements of known agonists and antagonists of the investigated target. Docking-based SAR optimization allowed us to identify compound 42 as one of the most potent and selective A2A agonist discovered so far (Ki hA2AAR = 4.8 nM, EC50 hA2AAR = 4.9 nM, Ki hA1AR > 10 000 nM, Ki hA3AR = 1487 nM, EC50 hA2BAR > 10 000 nM).

The second extracellular loop of the adenosine A1 receptor mediates activity of allosteric enhancers

Allosteric enhancers of the adenosine A1 receptor amplify signaling by orthosteric agonists. Allosteric enhancers are appealing drug candidates because their activity requires that the orthosteric site be occupied by an agonist, thereby conferring specificity to stressed or injured tissues that produce adenosine. To explore the mechanism of allosteric enhancer activity, we examined their action on several A1 receptor constructs, including (1) species variants, (2) species chimeras, (3) alanine scanning mutants, and (4) site-specific mutants. These findings were combined with homology modeling of the A1 receptor and in silico screening of an allosteric enhancer library. The binding modes of known docked allosteric enhancers correlated with the known structure-activity relationship, suggesting that these allosteric enhancers bind to a pocket formed by the second extracellular loop, flanked by residues S150 and M162. We propose a model in which this vestibule controls the entry and efflux of agonists from the orthosteric site and agonist binding elicits a conformational change that enables allosteric enhancer binding. This model provides a mechanism for the observations that allosteric enhancers slow the dissociation of orthosteric agonists but not antagonists.

TRR469, a potent A(1) adenosine receptor allosteric modulator, exhibits anti-nociceptive properties in acute and neuropathic pain models in mice

A(1) adenosine receptors (ARs) have been identified as a potential target for the development of anti-nociceptive compounds. The present study explores the analgesic effects of a novel A(1)AR positive allosteric modulator, TRR469, in different models of acute and chronic pain in mice. To evaluate the allosteric enhancement, in vitro binding experiments were performed. The anti-nociceptive properties were investigated in formalin and writhing tests, and in the streptozotocin-induced diabetic neuropathic pain model. Rotarod and catalepsy tests were used to identify potential side effects, while the functional effect of TRR469 was studied using [(3)H]-d-aspartate release from synaptosomes. TRR469 effectively inhibited nociceptive responses in the formalin and writhing tests, with effects comparable to those of the reference analgesic morphine. Isobolographic analysis of the combination of TRR469 and morphine revealed an additive interaction. TRR469 was anti-allodynic in the neuropathic pain model and did not display locomotor or cataleptic side effects. TRR469 enhanced the binding of the agonist radioligand [(3)H]-CCPA and induced a 33-fold increase of adenosine affinity in spinal cord membranes. In mouse spinal cord synaptosomes, TRR469 enhanced the inhibitory effect of A(1)AR activation on [(3)H]-d-aspartate release, a non-metabolizable analogue of glutamate. In conclusion, this research demonstrates the anti-nociceptive effect of the novel compound TRR469, one of the most potent and effective A(1)AR positive allosteric modulators so far synthesized. The use of TRR469 allows for the possibility of exploiting analgesic properties of endogenous adenosine, with a minor potential to develop the various side effects often associated with the use of direct receptor agonists.