Publications by authors named "Richard Look"

We have continued to explore spirobenzazepines as vasopressin receptor antagonists to follow up on RWJ-339489 (2), which had advanced into preclinical development. Further structural modifications were pursued to find a suitable backup compound for human clinical studies. Thus, we identified carboxylic acid derivative 3 (RWJ-676070; JNJ-17158063) as a potent, balanced vasopressin V(1a)/V(2) receptor antagonist with favorable properties for clinical development.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

1. Antagonists of the V(2) vasopressin (AVP) receptor are aquaretic agents, inhibiting water resorption without stimulating electrolyte excretion. In this set of experiments, a novel V(2) receptor antagonist, RWJ-351647, was characterized in vitro and in vivo.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

A series of 3-anilino-quinoxalinones has been identified as a new class of glycogen phosphorylase inhibitors. The lead compound 1 was identified through high throughput screening as well as through pharmacophore-based electronic screening. Modifications were made to the scaffold of 1 to produce novel analogues, some of which are 25 times more potent than the lead compound.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

A novel series of acyclic 3-(7-azaindolyl)-4-(aryl/heteroaryl)maleimides was synthesized and evaluated for activity against GSK-3beta and selectivity versus PKC-betaII, as well as a broad panel of protein kinases. Compounds 14 and 17c potently inhibited GSK-3beta (IC(50)=7 and 26 nM, respectively) and exhibited excellent selectivity over PKC-betaII (325 and >385-fold, respectively). Compound 17c was also highly selective against 68 other protein kinases.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

A series of substituted spirobenzazepines was prepared and evaluated as V(1a) and V(2) dual vasopressin receptor antagonists. Compounds 7p and 7q have been shown to be not only potent inhibitors of vasopressin receptors, but also have exhibited an excellent overall pharmaceutical suitability profile.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

A novel series of spirobenzazepines was synthesized and evaluated for V1a and V2 receptor antagonist activity. Compounds 8b, 8i, and 8k have shown selective V1a receptor antagonist activity. Compounds 8p and 8q were shown to be dual V1a/V2 receptor antagonists.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Vasopressin receptor antagonists can elicit ion-sparing diuretic effects (i.e., aquaresis) in vivo by blunting the action of the circulating hypophyseal hormone arginine vasopressin.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Palladium catalyzed cross-coupling reactions were used to synthesize two key intermediates 3 and 5 that resulted in the synthesis of novel series of macrocyclic bis-7-azaindolylmaleimides. Among the three series of macrocycles, the oxygen atom and thiophene containing linkers yielded molecules with higher inhibitory potency at GSK-3 beta (K(i)=0.011-0.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

A number of 2,5-disubstituted benzothiazepines were synthesized and screened for their ability to inhibit arginine vasopressin binding to the human V(2) and V(1a) receptor subtypes. The more active compounds were subsequently analyzed for their antagonist activity in in vitro functional assays. The SAR showed a preference for an acidic unit appended from the benzothiazepine scaffold.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Attempts to design the macrocyclic maleimides as selective protein kinase C gamma inhibitors led to the unexpected discovery of a novel series of potent and highly selective glycogen synthase kinase-3beta (GSK-3beta) inhibitors. Palladium-catalyzed cross-coupling reactions were used to synthesize the key intermediates 17 and 22 that resulted in the synthesis of novel macrocycles. All three macrocyclic series (bisindolyl-, mixed 7-azaindoleindolyl-, and bis-7-azaindolylmaleimides) were found to have submicromolar inhibitory potency at GSK-3beta with various degrees of selectivity toward other protein kinases.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Efficient methods were developed to synthesize a novel series of macrocyclic bisindolylmaleimides containing linkers with multiple heteroatoms. Potent inhibitors (single digit nanomolar IC(50)) for PKC-beta and GSK-3beta were identified, and compounds showed good selectivity over PKC-alpha, -gamma, -delta, -epsilon, and -zeta. Representative compound 5a also had high selectivity in a screening panel of 10 other protein kinases.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

A series of novel 3,4,5,6-tetrahydro-1H-azepino[4,3,2-cd]indoles was synthesized and tested for vasopressin receptor antagonist activity. We identified compounds with high affinity for the human V2 receptor and good selectivity over the human V1a receptor. Compound 6c bound to V2 receptors with an IC(50) value of 20 nM, had >100-fold selectivity over V1a receptors, and inhibited cAMP formation in a cellular V2 functional assay with an IC(50) value of 70 nM.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The synthesis and biological testing of a novel series of nonpeptide vasopressin receptor antagonists, containing a bridged bicyclic nucleus, are reported. Variation of substituents (R(1)-R(3)) in general formula 3, and the configuration of the stereocenter, resulted in potent V(2)-selective (e.g.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF