In vivo antinociception of potent mu opioid agonist tetrapeptide analogues and comparison with a compact opioid agonist - neurokinin 1 receptor antagonist chimera

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>An important limiting factor in the development of centrally acting pharmaceuticals is the blood-brain barrier (BBB). Transport of therapeutic peptides through this highly protective physiological barrier remains a challenge for peptide drug delivery into the central nervous system (CNS). Because the most common strategy to treat moderate to severe pain consists of the activation of opioid receptors in the brain, the development of active opioid peptide analogues as potential analgesics requires compounds with a high resistance to enzymatic degradation and an ability to cross the BBB.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Herein we report that tetrapeptide analogues of the type H-Dmt¹-Xxx²-Yyy³-Gly⁴-NH₂are transported into the brain after intravenous and subcutaneous administration and are able to activate the μ- and δ opioid receptors more efficiently and over longer periods of time than morphine. Using the hot water tail flick test as the animal model for antinociception, a comparison in potency is presented between a side chain conformationally constrained analogue containing the benzazepine ring (BVD03, Yyy³: Aba), and a "ring opened" analogue (BVD02, Yyy³: Phe). The results show that in addition to the increased lipophilicity through amide bond N-methylation, the conformational constraint introduced at the level of the Phe³side chain causes a prolonged antinociception. Further replacement of NMe-D-Ala²by D-Arg²in the tetrapeptide sequence led to an improved potency as demonstrated by a higher and maintained antinociception for AN81 (Xxx²: D-Arg) vs. BVD03 (Xxx²: NMe-D-Ala). A daily injection of the studied opioid ligands over a time period of 5 days did however result in a substantial decrease in antinociception on the fifth day of the experiment. The compact opioid agonist - NK1 antagonist hybrid SBCHM01 could not circumvent opioid induced tolerance.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>We demonstrated that the introduction of a conformational constraint has an important impact on opioid receptor activation and subsequent antinociception in vivo. Further amino acid substitution allowed to identify AN81 as an opioid ligand able to access the CNS and induce antinociception at very low doses (0.1 mg/kg) over a time period up to 7 hours. However, tolerance became apparent after repetitive i.v. administration of the investigated tetrapeptides. This side effect was also observed with the dual opioid agonist-NK1 receptor antagonist SBCHM01.</p

Bifunctional peptide-based opioid agonist/nociceptin antagonist ligand for dual treatment of nociceptive and neuropathic pain

International audienceDrugs able to treat both nociceptive and neuropathic pain effectively without major side effects are lacking. We developed a bifunctional peptide-based hybrid (KGNOP1) that structurally combines a mu-opioid receptor agonist (KGOP1) with antinociceptive activity and a weak nociceptin receptor antagonist (KGNOP3) with anti-neuropathic pain activity. We investigated KGNOP1-related behavioral effects after intravenous administration in rats by assessing thermal nociception, cold hyperalgesia in a model of neuropathic pain induced by chronic constriction injury of the sciatic nerve, and plethysmography parameters including inspiratory time (TI) and minute ventilation (VM) in comparison to the well-known opioid analgesics, tramadol and morphine. Time-course and dose-dependent effects were investigated for all behavioral parameters to determine the effective doses 50% (ED50). Pain-related effects on cold hyperalgesia were markedly increased by KGNOP1 as compared to KGNOP3 and tramadol (ED50: 0.0004, 0.32, and 12.1 μmol/kg, respectively), whereas effects on thermal nociception were significantly higher with KGNOP1 as compared to morphine (ED50: 0.41 and 14.7 μmol/kg, respectively). KGNOP1 and KGOP1 produced a larger increase in TI and deleterious decrease in VM in comparison to morphine and tramadol (ED50(TI): 0.63, 0.52, 12.2, and 50.9 μmol/kg; ED50(VM): 0.57, 0.66, 10.6, and 50.0 μmol/kg, respectively). Interestingly, the calculated ratios of anti-neuropathic pain/antinociceptive to respiratory effects revealed that KGNOP1 was safer than tramadol (ED50 ratio: 5.44 × 10 vs 0.24) and morphine (ED50 ratio: 0.72 vs 1.39). We conclude that KGNOP1 is able to treat both experimental neuropathic and nociceptive pain, more efficiently and safely than tramadol and morphine, respectively, and thus should be a candidate for future clinical developments

A combinatorial approach to the structure elucidation of a pyoverdine siderophore produced by a Pseudomonas putida isolate and the use of pyoverdine as a taxonomic marker for typing P-putida subspecies

The structure of a pyoverdine produced by Pseudomonas putida, W15Oct28, was elucidated by combining mass spectrometric methods and bioinformatics by the analysis of non-ribosomal peptide synthetase genes present in the newly sequenced genome. The only form of pyoverdine produced by P. putida W15Oct28 is characterized to contain alpha-ketoglutaric acid as acyl side chain, a dihydropyoverdine chromophore, and a 12 amino acid peptide chain. The peptide chain is unique among all pyoverdines produced by Pseudomonas subspecies strains. It was characterized as -l-Asp-l-Ala-d-AOHOrn-l-Thr-Gly-c[l-Thr(O-)-l-Hse-d-Hya-l-Ser-l-Orn-l-Hse-l-Ser-O-]. The chemical formula and the detected and calculated molecular weight of this pyoverdine are: C65H93N17O32, detected mass 1624.6404 Da, calculated mass 1624.6245. Additionally, pyoverdine structures from both literature reports and bioinformatics prediction of the genome sequenced P. putida strains are summarized allowing us to propose a scheme based on pyoverdines structures as tool for the phylogeny of P. putida. This study shows the strength of the combination of in silico analysis together with analytical data and literature mining in determining the structure of secondary metabolites such as peptidic siderophores

T3P-Promoted, Mild, One-Pot Syntheses of Constrained Polycyclic Lactam Dipeptide Analogues via Stereoselective Pictet–Spengler and Meyers Lactamization Reactions

A new convenient, mild, one-pot procedure is described for the diastereoselective synthesis of constrained 7,5- and 7,6-fused azabicycloalkanes. Using 2-formyl-L-tryptophan and 2-formyl-l-phenylalanine as bielectrophilic building blocks, T3P-mediated Pictet–Spengler and Meyers lactamization reactions were developed to present chiral and polycyclic aminoindolo- and aminobenzazepinone compounds in excellent yields. The conformationally constrained compounds can serve as templates for peptidomimetic research or polyheterocyclic privileged scaffolds

A bifunctional biased mu opioid agonist-neuropeptide FF receptor antagonist as analgesic with improved acute and chronic side effects

International audienc

χ‑Space Screening of Dermorphin-Based Tetrapeptides through Use of Constrained Arylazepinone and Quinolinone Scaffolds

Herein, the synthesis of novel conformationally constrained amino acids, 4-amino-8-bromo-2-benzazepin-3-one (8-Br-Aba), 3-amino-3,4-dihydroquinolin-2-one, and regioisomeric 4-amino-naphthoazepinones (1- and 2-Ana), is described. Introduction of these constricted scaffolds into the <i>N</i>-terminal tetrapeptide of dermorphin (i.e., H-Tyr-d-Ala-Phe-Gly-NH₂) induced significant shifts in binding affinity, selectivity, and in vitro activity at the μ- and δ-opioid receptors (MOP and DOP, respectively). A reported constrained μ-/δ-opioid lead tetrapeptide H-Dmt-d-Arg-Aba-Gly-NH₂ was modified through application of various constrained building blocks to identify optimal spatial orientations in view of activity at the opioid receptors. Interestingly, when the aromatic moieties were turned toward the <i>C</i>-terminus of the peptide sequences, (partial) (ant)­agonism at MOP and weak (ant)­agonism at DOP were noticed, whereas the incorporation of the 1-Ana residue led toward balanced low nanomolar MOP/DOP binding and in vitro agonism

Synthesis and biological evaluation of compact, conformationally constrained bifunctional opioid agonist - Neurokinin-1 antagonist peptidomimetics

A reported mixed opioid agonist - neurokinin 1 receptor (NK1R) antagonist 4 (Dmt-D-Arg-Aba-Gly-(3',5'-(CF3)2)NMe-benzyl) was modified to identify important features in both pharmacophores. The new dual ligands were tested in vitro and subsequently two compounds (lead structure 4 and one of the new analogues 22, Dmt-D-Arg-Aba-β-Ala-NMe-Bn) were selected for in vivo behavioural assays, which were conducted in acute (tail-flick) and neuropathic pain models (cold plate and von Frey) in rats. Compared to the parent opioid compound 33 (without NK1R pharmacophore), hybrid 22 was more active in the neuropathic pain models. Attenuation of neuropathic pain emerged from NK1R antagonism as demonstrated by the pure NK1R antagonist 6. Surprisingly, despite a lower in vitro activity at NK1R in comparison with 4, compound 22 was more active in the neuropathic pain models. Although potent analgesic effects were observed for 4 and 22, upon chronic administration, both manifested a tolerance profile similar to that of morphine and cross tolerance with morphine in a neuropathic pain model in rat.publisher: Elsevier articletitle: Synthesis and biological evaluation of compact, conformationally constrained bifunctional opioid agonist – Neurokinin-1 antagonist peptidomimetics journaltitle: European Journal of Medicinal Chemistry articlelink: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ejmech.2014.12.033 content_type: article copyright: Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Masson SAS. Published by Elsevier Masson SAS All rights reserved.status: publishe