Abstract
N-benzyl substitution of 5-HT2A receptor agonists of the phenethylamine structural class of psychedelics (such as 4-bromo-2,5-dimethoxyphenethylamine, often referred to as 2C-B) confer a significant increase in binding affinity as well as functional activity of the receptor. We have prepared a series of 48 compounds with structural variations in both the phenethylamine and N-benzyl part of the molecule to determine the effects on receptor binding affinity and functional activity at 5-HT2A and 5-HT2C receptors. The compounds generally had high affinity for the 5-HT2A receptor with 8b having the highest affinity at 0.29 nM but with several other compounds also exhibiting sub-nanomolar binding affinities. The functional activity of the compounds was distributed over a wider range with 1b being the most potent at 0.074 nM. Most of the compounds exhibited low to moderate selectivity (1 to 40-fold) for the 5-HT2A receptor in the binding assays although one compound 6b showed an impressive 100-fold selectivity for the 5-HT2A receptor. In the functional assay selectivity was generally higher with 1b being more than 400-fold selective for the 5-HT2A receptor.
Original language | English |
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Journal | A C S Chemical Neuroscience |
Volume | 5 |
Issue number | 3 |
Pages (from-to) | 243-249 |
Number of pages | 8 |
ISSN | 1948-7193 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 19 Mar 2014 |