Abstract

Neuronal alpha 4 beta 2 nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChRs) are ligand-gated ion channels (LGIC) that have been implicated in nicotine addiction, reward, cognition, pain disorders, anxiety, and depression. Nicotine has been widely used as a template for the synthesis of ligands that prefer alpha 4 beta 2 nAChRs subtypes. The most important therapeutic use for alpha 4 beta 2 nAChRs is as replacement therapy for smoking cessation and withdrawal and the most successful therapeutic ligands are partial agonists. In this case, we use the N-methylpyrrolidine moiety of nicotine to design and synthesize new alpha 4 beta 2 nicotinic derivatives, coupling the pyrrolidine moiety to an aromatic group by introducing an ether-bonded functionality. Meta-substituted phenolic derivatives were used for these goals. Radioligand binding assays were performed on clonal cell lines of h alpha 4 beta 2 nAChR and two electrode voltage-clamp experiments were used for functional assays. Molecular docking was performed in the open state of the nAChR in order to rationalize the agonist activity shown by our compounds.