Bioorganic & Medicinal Chemistry Letters
September 1, 2018
Shun Hirasawa, Min Cho, Tarsis F. Brust et al.
Salvinorin A (SalA) is a potent and selective agonist of the kappa-opioid receptor (KOR), but its instability has frustrated medicinal chemistry efforts. Treatment of SalA with weak bases like DBU leads to C8 epimerization with loss of receptor affinity and signaling potency. Here we show that replacement of C20 with H and replacement of O6 with CH2 stabilizes the SalA scaffold relative to its...
Bioorganic & Medicinal Chemistry Letters
March 12, 2018
Jeremy J Roach, Ryan A Shenvi
The plant metabolite salvinorin A potently and selectively agonizes the human kappa-opioid receptor, an emerging target for next-generation analgesics. Here we review analogs of the salvinorin chemotype and their effects on selectivity, affinity and potency. Extensive peripheral modifications using isolated salvinorin A have delivered a trove of SAR information. More deep-seated changes are now...
Bioorganic & Medicinal Chemistry Letters
February 1, 2016
Nicholas V. Cozzi, Paul F. Daley
24 citations
N,N-Diallyltryptamine (DALT) and 5-methoxy-N,N-diallyltryptamine (5-MeO-DALT) are two tryptamines synthesized and tested by Alexander Shulgin. In self-experiments, 5-MeO-DALT was reported to be psychoactive in the 12-20mg range, while the unsubstituted compound DALT had few discernible effects in the 42-80 mg range. Recently, 5-MeO-DALT has been used in nonmedical settings for its psychoactive...
Bioorganic & Medicinal Chemistry Letters
October 15, 2015
David Y W Lee, Gang Deng, Zhongze Ma et al.
The synthesis of a new series of C-2-alkyl-2-methoxymethyl-salvinorin ethers and their binding affinities at κ-, μ-, and δ-opioid receptors are presented. We have developed a synthesis that enables installation of alkyl-substituents at C-2 while maintaining the integrity of the C-2 methoxymethyl ether and retaining κ-opioid receptor binding activity. Among these new compounds,...
Bioorganic & Medicinal Chemistry Letters
June 1, 2013
Warunya Arunotayanun, Jeffrey W Dalley, Xi-Ping Huang et al.
41 citations
Novel Psychoactive Drugs (NPD) can be sold without restriction and are often synthetic analogues of controlled drugs. The tryptamines are an important class of NPD as they bind to the various serotonin (5-HT) receptor subtypes and cause psychosis and hallucinations that can lead to injury or death through misadventure. Here we report on the structure elucidation and receptor binding profiles of...
Bioorganic & Medicinal Chemistry Letters
May 15, 2013
Prabhakar R Polepally, Kate White, Eyal Vardy et al.
24 citations
Salvinorin A, the active ingredient of the hallucinogenic plant Salvia divinorum is the most potent known naturally occurring hallucinogen and is a selective κ-opioid receptor agonist. To better understand the ligand-receptor interactions, a series of dicarboxylic ester-type of salvinorin A derivatives were synthesized and evaluated for their binding affinity at κ-, δ- and μ-opioid receptors....
Bioorganic & Medicinal Chemistry Letters
January 15, 2012
Cécile Béguin, Justin Potuzak, Wei Xu et al.
The kappa opioid receptor (KOPR) has been identified as a potential drug target to prevent or alter the course of mood, anxiety and addictive disorders or reduce response to stress. In a search for highly potent and selective KOPR partial agonists as pharmacological tools, we have modified 12-epi-salvinorin A, a compound which we have previously observed to be a KOPR partial agonist. Five...
Bioorganic & Medicinal Chemistry Letters
January 1, 2011
Jakub Fichna, Kevin Lewellyn, Feng Yan et al.
The synthesis and in vitro evaluation of a new series of salvinorin A analogues substituted at the C(2) position with natural amino acids is reported. Compound 12, containing Val, displayed high affinity and full agonist activity at the kappa-opioid receptor. Analogues with bulky and/or aromatic residues were inactive, showing the importance of size and electronegativity of C(2)-substituents...
Bioorganic & Medicinal Chemistry Letters
October 1, 2010
David Y W Lee, Lu Yang, Wei Xu et al.
Salvinorin A (1), the main active ingredient of Salvia divinorum, is a potent and selective κ opioid receptor (KOPR) agonist. Based on the SAR, its C-2 position is one of the key binding sites and has very little space tolerance (3-4 carbons atoms) and limited to only lipophilic groups. In our attempt to prepare PET brain imaging agent for mapping KOPR, a series of C-2 halogenated analogs have...
Bioorganic & Medicinal Chemistry Letters
June 1, 2010
Manuel López-Ortíz, Andrea Herrera Solís, Axel Luviano-Jardón et al.
Endocannabinoids (eCBs) are endogenous neuromodulators of synaptic transmission. Their dysfunction may cause debilitating disorders of diverse clinical manifestation. For example, drug addiction, lack of sex desire, eating disorders, such as anorexia or bulimia and dyssomnias. eCBs also participate in the regulation of core temperature and pain perception. In this context, it is important to...
Bioorganic & Medicinal Chemistry Letters
September 15, 2009
Anthony Lozama, Thomas E Prisinzano
Diterpenes are a structural class of molecules that are derived from four isoprene subunits and are widespread throughout nature. A number of neoclerodane diterpenes have been found to have biological activity but a limited number of chemical investigations have been conducted. Recently, the neoclerodane diterpene, salvinorin A (12) has been investigated due to its unique pharmacological...
Bioorganic & Medicinal Chemistry Letters
March 1, 2009
Lu Yang, Wei Xu, Feng Chen et al.
Salvinorin A (1), the main active ingredient of Salvia divinorum, is a potent and selective kappa-opioid receptor (KOPR) agonist. A series of C-12 triazole analogs and the oxadiazole (4) analog of 1 are synthesized and screened for binding affinity at kappa, mu (MOPR), or delta (DOPR). Surprisingly, all triazole analogs have shown negligible binding affinity at opioid receptors and the...
Bioorganic & Medicinal Chemistry Letters
November 15, 2007
Kenneth G Holden, Kevin Tidgewell, Alfred Marquam et al.
Modification of the C-1 ketone of salvinorin A (2a) produces analogues with opioid antagonist properties. Of particular significance is the finding that 1-deoxo-1,10-dehydrosalvinorin A (11a) is a moderately potent antagonist at all three opioid receptor subtypes, and that herkinorin (2b), a mu agonist, is converted to a weak antagonist by removal of the C-1 ketone (3b and 11b). These...
Bioorganic & Medicinal Chemistry Letters
April 15, 2007
Ruslan V Bikbulatov, Feng Yan, Bryan L. Roth et al.
To study drug-receptor interactions, new thio-derivatives of salvinorin A, an extremely potent natural kappa-opioid receptor (KOR) agonist, were synthesized. Obtained compounds were examined for receptor binding affinity. Analogs with the same configuration at carbon atom C-2 as in natural salvinorin A showed higher affinity to KOR than their corresponding epimers.
Bioorganic & Medicinal Chemistry Letters
November 1, 2006
David Y W Lee, Minsheng He, Lee-Yuan Liu-Chen et al.
Salvinorin A, a compound isolated from the plant Salvia divinorum, is a potent and highly selective agonist for the kappa opioid receptor. For exploration of its structure and activity relationships, further modifications, such as reduction at the C(4) position, have been studied and a series of salvinorin A derivatives were prepared. These C(4)-modified salvinorin A analogues were screened for...
Bioorganic & Medicinal Chemistry Letters
September 1, 2006
Cécile Béguin, Michele R Richards, Jian-Guo Li et al.
kappa-opioid receptor ligands have raised interest for their apparent effects on mood. The potent and selective kappa-agonist salvinorin A has short-lasting (15min) depressive-like effects in rats in behavioral models used to study mood disorders. Two series of salvinorin derivatives modified at C(2) and C(18), respectively, were synthesized and their kappa-opioid receptor affinities,...
Bioorganic & Medicinal Chemistry Letters
June 15, 2006
Wayne W Harding, Matthew Schmidt, Kevin Tidgewell et al.
A synthetic sequence has been developed to selectively functionalize the furan ring of the natural product salvinorin A (2a). The synthetic routes described convert the furan ring in 2a into an N-sulfonylpyrrole, oxazole or an oxadiazole. In addition, a procedure has been found to remove the furan skeleton completely. Biological results indicate that replacement of the furan ring with an...
Bioorganic & Medicinal Chemistry Letters
October 1, 2005
David Y W Lee, Minsheng He, Leelakrishna Kondaveti et al.
Salvinorin A is the most potent naturally occurring opioid agonist with a high selectivity and affinity for kappa-opioid receptor. To explore its structure-activity relationships, modifications at the C(4) position have been studied and a series of salvinorin A derivatives were prepared. These C(4)-modified salvinorin A analogues were screened for binding and functional activities at the human...
Bioorganic & Medicinal Chemistry Letters
August 3, 2005
Howard Sard, Govindaraj Kumaran, Cynthia Morency et al.
78 citations
An SAR study of psilocybin and psilocin derivatives reveals that 1-methylpsilocin is a selective agonist at the h5-HT(2C) receptor. The corresponding phosphate derivative, 1-methylpsilocybin, shows efficacy in an animal model for obsessive-compulsive disorder, as does 4-fluoro-N,N-dimethyltryptamine. These results suggest a new area for development of novel 5-HT(2C) agonists with applications...
Bioorganic & Medicinal Chemistry Letters
June 1, 2005
Synthesis and in vitro pharmacological evaluation of salvinorin A analogues modified at C(2).
Bioorganic & Medicinal Chemistry Letters
October 18, 2004
Kevin Tidgewell, Wayne W Harding, Mark S Schmidt et al.
68 citations
Salvinorin A is a novel hallucinogen isolated from the widely available leaves of Salvia divinorum. Based on its mechanism of action, salvinorin A has shown potential as a stimulant abuse therapeutic. However, there are no methods for the detection of salvinorin A or its metabolites in biological fluids. In order to begin developing salvinorin A as a potential therapeutic, an understanding of...