Design and synthesis of new agents for neuronal nicotinic acetylcholine receptor (nAChRs) imaging.

Abstract Introduction The most abundant subtype of cerebral nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChR), α4β2, plays a critical role in various brain functions and pathological states. Due to rapid technological progress in chemistry, bioinformatics, structural biology and computer technology, computer aided drug design (CADD) plays a more and more important role in today's drug discovery. Methods Two novel 3-pyridyl ether nicotinic ligands-3-((pyridine-2-yl)methoxy)-5-iodopyridine, and 3-((( S )-pyrrolidin-2-yl)methoxy)-5-((4-iodobenzyloxy)-methyl)pyridine were designed and synthesized and radiolabeled with I-125 based on our 3D-QSAR models reported previously. Their ability to label high-affinity brain nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChRs) was evaluated. Results [ 125 I]3-((pyridin-2-yl)methoxy)-5-iodopyridine shows rapid accumulation and elimination with peak (1.86%ID/g) at 5 min post injection, but has high blood uptake. [ 125 I]3-((( S )-pyrrolidin-2-yl)methoxy)-5-((4-iodobenzyloxy)methyl)pyridine entered the brain with maximal uptake value 3.01%ID/g at 15 min after injection, and showed approximately 27% inhibition of radioactivity uptake in thalamus in mice pretreated with nicotine. Conclusions The results of this preliminary study show that [ 125 I]3-((( S )-pyrrolidin-2-yl)methoxy)-5-((4-iodobenzyloxy)methyl)pyridine shows relatively high uptake to the brain, however, since the in vivo selectivity for α4β2 nAChRs was not enough, [ 125 I]3-((( S )-pyrrolidin-2-yl)methoxy)-5-((4-iodobenzyloxy)methyl)pyridine does not have the required properties for imaging nAChRs using SPECT. Structure optimization is needed for specific visualization of brain α4β2 nAChRs in vivo.