Bernard Lucien Roy

Gamma-lactams—A novel scaffold for highly potent and selective α7 nicotinic acetylcholine receptor agonists

A novel class of alpha7 nicotinic acetylcholine receptor (nAChR) agonists has been discovered through high-throughput screening. The cis gamma-lactam scaffold has been optimized to reveal highly potent and selective alpha7 nAChR agonists with in vitro activity and selectivity and with good brain penetration in mice.

Drug Design, in Vitro Pharmacology, and Structure−Activity Relationships of 3-Acylamino-2-aminopropionic Acid Derivatives, a Novel Class of Partial Agonists at the Glycine Site on the N-Methyl-d-aspartate (NMDA) Receptor Complex

Retaining agonistic activity at the glycine coagonist site of the NMDA receptor in molecules derived from glycine or d-serine has proven to be difficult because in the vicinity of the alpha-amino acid group little substitution is tolerated. We have solved this problem by replacing the hydroxy group of d-serine with an amido group, thus keeping the hydrogen donor function and allowing for further substitution and exploration of the adjacent space. Heterocyclic substitutions resulted in a series of 3-acylamino-2-aminopropionic acid derivatives, with high affinities in a binding assay for the glycine site. In a functional assay assessing the activation of the glycine site, these compounds displayed a wide range of intrinsic efficacies, from antagonism to a high degree of partial agonism. Structure-activity relationships reveal that lipophilic substituents, presumably filling an additional hydrophobic pocket, are accepted by the glycine site, provided that they are separated from the alpha-amino acid group by a short linker.