Synthesis, pharmacology and molecular modeling of N-substituted 2-phenyl-indoles and benzimidazoles as potent GABA(A) agonists.

Among the known non-benzodiazepine hypnotic drugs, Zolpidem (1a), Indiplon (2a) and Zaleplon (2b) have shown high affinity and selectivity for the alpha(1) subunit of the GABA-A receptor. Our group has performed pharmacophoric and ADMET-prediction studies to evaluate a virtual library of new molecules based on privileged structures. Among these, we have synthesized a library of N-substituted indoles and a library of N-substituted benzimidazoles.