A novel class of succinimide-derived negative allosteric modulators of metabotropic glutamate receptor subtype 1 provides insight into a disconnect in activity between the rat and human receptors

Hyekyung P. Cho, Darren W. Engers, Daryl F. Venable, Colleen M. Niswender, Craig W. Lindsley, P. Jeffrey Conn, Kyle A. Emmitte, Alice L. Rodriguez

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

37 Scopus citations

Abstract

Recent progress in the discovery of mGlu1 allosteric modulators has suggested the modulation of mGlu1 could offer possible treatment for a number of central nervous system disorders; however, the available chemotypes are inadequate to fully investigate the therapeutic potential of mGlu1 modulation. To address this issue, we used a fluorescence-based high-throughput screening assay to screen an allosteric modulator-biased library of compounds to generate structurally diverse mGlu1 negative allosteric modulator hits for chemical optimization. Herein, we describe the discovery and characterization of a novel mGlu1 chemotype. This series of succinimide negative allosteric modulators, exemplified by VU0410425, exhibited potent inhibitory activity at rat mGlu1 but was, surprisingly, inactive at human mGlu1. VU0410425 and a set of chemically diverse mGlu1 negative allosteric modulators previously reported in the literature were utilized to examine this species disconnect between rat and human mGlu1 activity. Mutation of the key transmembrane domain residue 757 and functional screening of VU0410425 and the literature compounds suggests that amino acid 757 plays a role in the activity of these compounds, but the contribution of the residue is scaffold specific, ranging from critical to minor. The operational model of allosterism was used to estimate the binding affinities of each compound to compare to functional data. This novel series of mGlu1 negative allosteric modulators provides valuable insight into the pharmacology underlying the disconnect between rat and human mGlu1 activity, an issue that must be understood to progress the therapeutic potential of allosteric modulators of mGlu1.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)597-610
Number of pages14
JournalACS Chemical Neuroscience
Volume5
Issue number7
DOIs
StatePublished - 16 Jul 2014

Keywords

  • Allosteric modulator
  • glutamate
  • metabotropic

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'A novel class of succinimide-derived negative allosteric modulators of metabotropic glutamate receptor subtype 1 provides insight into a disconnect in activity between the rat and human receptors'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this