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We report the identification of two subsets of fluorinated nonxanthine A(2B) adenosine receptor antagonists. The novel derivatives explore the effect of fluorination at different positions of two pyrimidine-based scaffolds. The most interesting ligands combine excellent hA(2B) affinity (K-i < 15 nM) and remarkable subtype selectivity. The results of functional cAMP experiments confirmed the antagonistic behavior of representative ligands. The compounds were designed on the basis of previous molecular models of the stereoselective binding of the parent scaffolds to the hA(2B) receptor, and we herein provide refinement of such models with the fluorinated compounds, which allows the explanation of the spurious effects of the fluorination at the different positions explored. These models are importantly confirmed by a synergistic study combining chiral HPLC, circular dichroism, diastereoselective synthesis, molecular modeling, and X-ray crystallography, providing experimental evidence toward the stereospecific interaction between optimized trifluorinated stereoisomers and the hA(2B) receptor.

We report the first family of 2-acetamidopyridines as potent and selective A, adenosine receptor (AR) antagonists. The computer -assisted design was focused on the bioisosteric replacement of the N1 atom by a CH group in a previous series of diarylpyrimidines. Some of the generated 2-acetamidopyridines elicit an antagonistic effect with excellent affinity (K-j < 10 nM) and outstanding selectivity profiles, providing an alternative and simpler chemical scaffold to the parent series of diarylpyrimidines. In addition, using molecular dynamics and free energy perturbation simulations, we elucidate the effect of the second nitrogen of the parent diarylpyrimidines, which is revealed as a stabilizer of a water network in the binding site. The discovery of 2,6-diaryl-2-acetamidopyridines represents a step forward in the search of chemically simple, potent, and selective antagonists for the hA(3)AR, and exemplifies the benefits of a joint theoretical- experimental approach to identify novel hA(3)AR antagonists through succinct and efficient synthetic methodologies.

Background: A(3)AR antagonists are promising drug candidates as neuroprotective agents as well as for the treatment of inflammation or glaucoma. The most widely known A(3)AR antagonists are derived from polyheteroaromatic scaffolds, which usually show poor pharmacokinetic properties. Accordingly, the identification of structurally simple A(3)AR antagonists by the exploration of novel diversity spaces is a challenging goal. Results: A convergent and efficient Ugi-based multicomponent approach enabled the discovery of pyrazin-2(1H)-ones as a novel class of A(3)AR antagonists. A combined experimental/computational strategy accelerated the establishment of the most salient features of the structure-activity and structure-selectivity relationships in this series. Conclusion: The optimization process provided pyrazin-2(1H)-ones with improved affinity and a plausible hypothesis regarding their binding modes was proposed.