ERbeta ligands. 3. Exploiting two binding orientations of the 2-phenylnaphthalene scaffold to achieve ERbeta selectivity.

The 2-phenylnaphthalene scaffold was explored as a simplified version of genistein in order to identify ER selective ligands. With the aid of docking studies, positions 1, 4, and 8 of the 2-phenylnaphthalene template were predicted to be the most potentially influential positions to enhance ER selectivity using two different binding orientations. Both orientations have the phenol moiety mimicking the A-ring of genistein.

ERbeta ligands. Part 1: the discovery of ERbeta selective ligands which embrace the 4-hydroxy-biphenyl template.

The synthesis and structure-activity relationships of a series of simple biphenyls is described. Optimization of the 4-hydroxy-biphenyl template led to compounds with ERbeta selectivity on the order of 20-70-fold.