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A New Class of Potent N-Methyl-D-Aspartate Receptor Inhibitors: Sulfated Neuroactive Steroids with Lipophilic D-Ring Modifications

Publication at Faculty of Mathematics and Physics, Central Library of Charles University |
2015

Abstract

N-Methyl-u-aspartate receptors (NMDARs) are glutamate-gated ion channels that play a crucial role in excitatory synaptic transmission. However, the overactivation of NMDARs can lead to excitotoxic cell damage/death, and as such, they play a role in numerous neuropathological conditions.

The activity of NMDARs is known to be influenced by a wide variety of allosteric modulators, including neurosteroids, which in turn makes them promising therapeutic targets. In this study, we describe a new class of neurosteroid analogues which possess structural modifications in the steroid 1)-ring region.

These analogues were tested on recombinant GluN1/GluN2B receptors to evaluate the structure activity relationship. Our results demonstrate that there is a strong correlation between this new structural feature and the in vitro activity, as all tested compounds were evaluated as more potent inhibitors of NMDA-induced currents (IC50 values varying from 90 nM to.5.4 mu M) than the known endogeneous neurosteroid pregnanolone sulfate (IC50 = 24.6 mu M).