Loan Y Vu, Dan Luo, Kai Johnson, Emily D Denehy, Judy C Songrady, Jocelyn Martin, Riya Trivedi, Alexia R Alsum, Jakob D Shaykin, Chhabi L Chaudhary, Eric J Woloshin, Lindsay Kornberger, Nazmul Bhuiyan, Sean Parkin, Qianru Jiang, Tao Che, Warren Alilain, Jill R Turner, Michael T Bardo, Thomas E Prisinzano
While in the process of designing more effective synthetic opioid rescue agents, we serendipitously identified a new chemotype of potent synthetic opioid. Here, we report that conformational constraint of a piperazine ring converts a mu opioid receptor (MOR) antagonist into a potent MOR agonist. The prototype of the series, which we have termed atoxifent ( 2 ), possesses potent in vitro agonist activity. In mice, atoxifent displayed long-lasting antinociception that was reversible with naltrexone. Repeated dosing of atoxifent produced antinociceptive tolerance and a level of withdrawal like that of fentanyl...
May 29, 2024: Journal of Medicinal Chemistry