Syntheses and evaluation of fluorinated conformationally restricted analogues of GABA as potential inhibitors of GABA aminotransferase.
Bioorganic & medicinal chemistry 2006 Apr 1; 14(7):2242-52
Wang Z Z, Silverman R RB
Department of Chemistry, Center for Drug Discovery and Chemical Biology, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL 60208-3113, USA.
Inhibition of gamma-aminobutyric acid aminotransferase (GABA-AT) could raise the concentration of GABA, an inhibitory neurotransmitter in the human brain, and could have therapeutic applications for a variety of neurological diseases including epilepsy. Four fluorine-containing analogues of GABA with conformations restricted by a cyclohexane ring system were designed and synthesized, but unlike some of their five-membered ring counterparts, minimal inhibition of GABA-AT was observed. It is likely that the rigid chair conformation of these compounds cannot be accommodated well in the enzyme's active site.