• Julie L Engers, Aaron M Bender, Jacob J Kalbfleisch, Hyekyung P Cho, Kaelyn S Lingenfelter, Vincent B Luscombe, Changho Han, Bruce J Melancon, Anna L Blobaum, Jonathan W Dickerson, Jerri M Rook, Colleen M Niswender, Kyle A Emmitte, P Jeffrey Conn, and Craig W Lindsley.
• Vanderbilt Center for Neuroscience Drug Discovery , Vanderbilt University Medical Center , Nashville , Tennessee 37232 , United States.
• Acs Chem Neurosci. 2019 Mar 20; 10 (3): 1035-1042.

AbstractThis Letter describes the chemical optimization of a new series of muscarinic acetylcholine receptor subtype 1 (M1) positive allosteric modulators (PAMs) based on novel tricyclic triazolo- and imidazopyridine lactam cores, devoid of M1 agonism, e.g., no M1 ago-PAM activity, in high expressing recombinant cell lines. While all the new tricyclic congeners afforded excellent rat pharmacokinetic (PK) properties (CLp < 8 mL/min/kg and t1/2 > 5 h), regioisomeric triazolopyridine analogues were uniformly not CNS penetrant ( Kp < 0.05), despite a lack of hydrogen bond donors. However, removal of a single nitrogen atom to afford imidazopyridine derivatives proved to retain the excellent rat PK and provide high CNS penetration ( Kp > 2), despite inclusion of a basic nitrogen. Moreover, 24c was devoid of M1 agonism in high expressing recombinant cell lines and did not induce cholinergic seizures in vivo in mice. Interestingly, all of the new M1 PAMs across the diverse tricyclic heterocyclic cores possessed equivalent CNS MPO scores (>4.5), highlighting the value of both "medicinal chemist's eye" and experimental data, e.g., not sole reliance (or decision bias) on in silico calculated properties, for parameters as complex as CNS penetration.

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