Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2023 Jan 24:14:1101290.
doi: 10.3389/fphar.2023.1101290. eCollection 2023.

Binding and functional structure-activity similarities of 4-substituted 2,5-dimethoxyphenyl isopropylamine analogues at 5-HT2A and 5-HT2B serotonin receptors

Affiliations

Binding and functional structure-activity similarities of 4-substituted 2,5-dimethoxyphenyl isopropylamine analogues at 5-HT2A and 5-HT2B serotonin receptors

Prithvi Hemanth et al. Front Pharmacol. .

Abstract

Certain 4-substituted analogs of 1-(2,5-dimethoxyphenyl)isopropylamine (2,5-DMA) are psychoactive classical hallucinogens or serotonergic psychedelic agents that function as human 5-HT2A (h5-HT2A) serotonin receptor agonists. Activation of a related receptor population, h5-HT2B receptors, has been demonstrated to result in adverse effects including cardiac valvulopathy. We previously published on the binding of several such agents at the two receptor subtypes. We hypothesized that, due to their structural similarity, the 5-HT2A and 5-HT2B receptor affinities of these agents might be related, and that QSAR studies might aid future studies. For a series of 13 compounds, it is demonstrated here that i) their published rat brain 5-HT2 receptor affinities are significantly correlated with their h5-HT2A (r = 0.942) and h5-HT2B (r = 0.916) affinities, ii) as with r5-HT2 receptor affinity, h5-HT2A affinity is correlated with the lipophilicity of the 4-position substituent (r = 0.798), iii) that eight of the ten compounds examined in functional (Ca+2 mobilization in stable cell lines generated expressing the human 5-HT2B receptor using the Flp-In T-REx system) assays acted as h5-HT2B agonists (4-substituent = H, F, Br, I, OCH2CH3, NO2, nC3H7, tC4H9) and two (n-hexyl and benzyl) as antagonists, iv) h5-HT2B affinity but not action was correlated with the lipophilicity of the 4-position substituent (r = 0.750; n = 10). The findings suggest that h5-HT2B receptor affinity, and its relationship to substituent lipophilicity, might be approximated by rat and h5-HT2A affinity but cannot be used as a predictor of h5-HT2B agonist action of 2,5-DMA analogs. Furthermore, given that certain 2,5-DMA analogs are on the clandestine market, their potential to produce cardiac side effects following persistent or chronic use via activation of h5-HT2B receptors should be considered.

Keywords: 5-HT2A; 5-HT2B; Ca2+ mobilization assay; QSAR; agonist; antagonist; psychedelic agents; valvulopathy.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Figures

FIGURE 1
FIGURE 1
Concentration-response curves for eight agonists (Table 1) normalized to 1 µM of the endogenous ligand (5-HT) 5-HT2B response.
FIGURE 2
FIGURE 2
5-HT2B receptor antagonist data with 1k (DOHX) pIC50 = 7.2 ± 0.18 (63.6 nM) and 1m (DOBz) pIC50 = 7.61 ± 0.08 (24.6 nM) in the presence of 10 nM of 5-HT.
FIGURE 3
FIGURE 3
Concentration-response curves for 2,5-DMA (1a) and its optical isomers at the 5-HT2B receptor, normalized to 1 µM of the endogenous ligand (5-HT) response.

Similar articles

Cited by

References

    1. Dahl C. F., Allen M. R., Urie P. M., Hopkins P. N. (2008). Valvular regurgitation and surgery associated with fenfluramine use: An analysis of 5743 individuals. BMC Medicine. 6, 34. 10.1186/1741-7015-6-34 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Elangbam C. (2010). Drug induced valvulopathy: An update. Toxicologic Pathology. 38, 837–848. PMID: 20716786. 10.1177/0192623310378027 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Glennon R. A. (1996). “Classical hallucinogens,” in Handbook of experimental Pharmacology: Pharmacological Aspects of drug dependence; schuster. Editors Schuster C. R., Kuhar M. J. (Basel, Switzerland: Springer-Verlag; ), 343–371.
    1. Glennon R. A., Liebowitz S. M., Mack E. C. (1978). Serotonin receptor binding affinities of several hallucinogenic phenalkylamine and N,N-dimethyltryptamine analogs. Journal of Medicinal Chemistry. 21, 822–825. PMID: 278843. 10.1021/jm00206a022 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Glennon R. A., Seggel M. R. (1989). “Interaction of phenylisopropylamines with 5-HT2 receptors: A QSAR analysis,” in Bioactive mechanisms. Editor Magee P. S. (Washington, United States: American Chemical Society; ), 264–280.