A series of quinoline-2-carboxylic acid derivatives: New potent glycine site NMDA receptor antagonists

Several types of 4-substituted-quinoline-2-carboxylic acid derivatives possessing different substituents at C4-position such as sulfonyl, phosphonyl, carbonyl groups, or a flexible alkyl chain have been synthesized and evaluated for their in vitro antagonistic activity at the glycine site on the N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptor. Of them, 5,7-dichloro-4-(tolylsulfonylamino)-quinoline-2-carboxylic acid 9 was found to have the best in vitro binding affinity with IC50 of 0.57 mu M. On the other hand, in compounds 21 and 22 the introduction of flexible alkyl chains on C4 of the quinoline mother nuclei caused a significant decrease of the in vitro binding affinity. In addition, replacement of polar carboxylic acid group on C2 by neutral bioisosteres in compounds 23a-d also seems to be disadvantageous to in vitro activity. In the structure-activity relationship (SAR) study of the 4-substituted quinoline-2-carboxylic acid acid derivatives, it was realized that the substitution pattern on C4 significantly influences on the binding affinity for the glycine site of NMDA receptor and the binding affinity might be increased by the introduction of a suitable electron rich substituent at C4 which has the ability of H-bonding donor.