Design, synthesis, and dopamine receptor modulating activity of diketopiperazine peptidomimetics of L-prolyl-L-leucylglycinamide.

The diketopiperazine “C5” conformational mimic has been incorporated into the l-prolyl-l-leucylglycinamide (PLG, 1) structure and into the bicyclic lactam PLG peptidomimetic structure 3 to give compounds 5 and 6, respectively. These analogues were designed to explore the idea that the N-terminal “C5” conformation, which was found in the crystal structure of 2 and which was mimicked in 4 by the diketopiperazine function, was a factor in the high potency of these two agents. Through the use of the [3H]spiroperidol/N-propylnorapomorphine (NPA) D2 receptor competitive binding assay, both 5 and 6 were found to increase the affinity of the dopamine receptor for agonists and both were found to increase the percentage of D2 receptors which existed in the high-affinity state. These effects were observed when Gpp(NH)p was either absent or present, and they were analogous to the effects observed previously for PLG and the PLG peptidomimetics 2 and 4. However, the potency seen with 5 and 6 was less than that seen for...