Discovery of Potent and Orally Bioavailable Dihydropyrazole GPR40 Agonists

  • J Med Chem. 2018 Feb 8;61(3):681-694. doi: 10.1021/acs.jmedchem.7b00982.
Jun Shi  1 Zhengxiang Gu  1 Elizabeth Anne Jurica  1 Ximao Wu  1 Lauren E Haque  1 Kristin N Williams  1 Andres S Hernandez  1 Zhenqiu Hong  1 Qi Gao  1 Marta Dabros  1 Akin H Davulcu  1 Arvind Mathur  1 Richard A Rampulla  1 Arun Kumar Gupta  1 Ramya Jayaram  1 Atsu Apedo  1 Douglas B Moore  1 Heng Liu  1 Lori K Kunselman  1 Edward J Brady  1 Jason J Wilkes  1 Bradley A Zinker  1 Hong Cai  1 Yue-Zhong Shu  1 Qin Sun  1 Elizabeth A Dierks  1 Kimberly A Foster  1 Carrie Xu  1 Tao Wang  1 Reshma Panemangalore  1 Mary Ellen Cvijic  1 Chunshan Xie  1 Gary G Cao  1 Min Zhou  1 John Krupinski  1 Jean M Whaley  1 Jeffrey A Robl  1 William R Ewing  1 Bruce Alan Ellsworth  1
Affiliations
  • 1. Research and Development, Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. , P.O. Box 4000, Princeton, New Jersey 08540-4000, United States.
Abstract

G protein-coupled receptor 40 (GPR40) has become an attractive target for the treatment of diabetes since it was shown clinically to promote glucose-stimulated Insulin secretion. Herein, we report our efforts to develop highly selective and potent GPR40 agonists with a dual mechanism of action, promoting both glucose-dependent Insulin and incretin secretion. Employing strategies to increase polarity and the ratio of sp3/sp2 character of the chemotype, we identified BMS-986118 (compound 4), which showed potent and selective GPR40 agonist activity in vitro. In vivo, compound 4 demonstrated insulinotropic efficacy and GLP-1 secretory effects resulting in improved glucose control in acute animal models.

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