Selective ETA antagonists. 5. Discovery and structure-activity relationships of phenoxyphenylacetic acid derivatives

The fifth paper in this series describes the culmination of our investigations into the development of a potent and selective ETA receptor antagonist for the treatment of diseases mediated by ET-1. Receptor site mapping of several ETA antagonists prepared previously identified a common cationic binding site which prompted synthesis of phenoxyphenylacetic acid derivative 13a, which showed good in vitro activity (IC50 59 nM, rat aortic ETA). Optimization of 13a led to the identification of 27b, which exhibited an IC50 of 4 nM. Although this did not translate into the expected in vivo potency, a compound of comparable in vitro activity, 27a (RPR118031A), showed a far better pharmacokinetic profile and in vivo potency (75 μmol/kg) and was duly proposed and accepted as a development candidate.