From the Promiscuous Asenapine to Potent Fluorescent Ligands Acting at a Series of Aminergic G-Protein-Coupled Receptors

Abstract

Monoamine neurotransmitters such as serotonin, dopamine, histamine, and noradrenaline have important and varied physiological functions and similar chemical structures. Representing important pharmaceutical drug targets, the corresponding G-protein-coupled receptors (termed aminergic GPCRs) belong to the class of cell membrane receptors and share many levels of similarity as well. Given their pharmacological and structural closeness, one could hypothesize the possibility to derivatize a ubiquitous ligand to afford rapidly fluorescent probes for a large set of GPCRs to be used for instance in FRET-based binding assays. Here we report fluorescent derivatives of the nonselective agent asenapine which were designed, synthesized, and evaluated as ligands of 34 serotonin, dopamine, histamine, melatonin, acetylcholine, and adrenergic receptors. It appears that this strategy led rapidly to the discovery and development of nanomolar affinity fluorescent probes for 14 aminergic GPCRs. Selected probes were tested in competition binding assays with unlabeled competitors in order to demonstrate their suitability for drug discovery purposes.