• He Li, Qi Huang, Cheng Chen, Bin Xu, He-Yao Wang, and Ya-Qiu Long.
• CAS Key Laboratory of Receptor Research, Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica, Chinese Academy of Sciences , 555 Zuchongzhi Road, Shanghai 201203, China.
• J. Med. Chem. 2017 Apr 13; 60 (7): 2697-2717.

AbstractThe free fatty acid receptor GPR40 is predominantly expressed in pancreatic β-cells and enhances insulin secretion in a glucose dependent manner. Therefore, GPR40 agonists are possible novel insulin secretagogues with reduced or no risk of hypoglycemia for the treatment of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). Chemically and structurally diverse GPR40 agonists with high safety are pursued for the clinical development of GPR40-based pharmacotherapeutics. Herein we report our design and discovery of a new chemotype of GPR40 agonists free of the typical phenylpropanoic acid scaffold. The thiophen-2-ylpropanoic acid containing GPR40 modulators functioned as full agonists with high-efficacy response (Emax) and reduced lipophilicity. Significantly, the lead compound in this series, (R)-7k, exhibited more potent in vitro glucose-stimulated insulin secretion and in vivo glucose-lowering effects (10 mg/kg, po) than the GPR40 partial agonist TAK-875, which was once in phase III clinical trials, and high selectivity over the relevant receptors GPR120 and PPARγ.

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