Intrinsic electrophilicity of a 4-substituted-5-cyano-6-(2-methylpyridin-3-yloxy)pyrimidine derivative: structural characterization of glutathione conjugates in vitro

Abstract

Isopropyl 9-anti-[5-cyano-6-(2-methyl-pyridin-3-yloxy)-pyrimidin-4-yloxy]-3-oxa-7-aza-bicyclo[3.3.1]nonane-7-carboxylate (1) represents a prototypic compound from a lead chemical series of G protein-coupled receptor 119 agonists, intended for treatment of type 2 diabetes. When compound 1 was incubated with NADPH-supplemented human liver microsomes in the presence of glutathione, two thioether conjugates M4-1 and M5-1 were observed. Omission of NADPH from the microsomal incubations prevented the formation of M5-1 but not M4-1. The formation of M4-1 was also discerned in incubations of 1 and glutathione with human liver cytosol, partially purified glutathione transferase, and in phosphate buffer at pH 7.4. M4-1 was isolated, and its structure ascertained from LC-MS/MS and NMR analysis. The mass spectral and NMR data suggested that M4-1 was obtained from a nucleophilic displacement of the 6-(2-methylpyridin-3-yloxy) group in 1 by glutathione. In addition, mass spectral studies revealed that M5-1 was derived from an analogous displacement reaction on a monohydroxylated metabolite of 1; the regiochemistry of hydroxylation was established to be on the isopropyl group. Of great interest were the findings that replacement of the 5-cyano group in 1 with a 5-methyl group resulted in 2, which was practically inert toward reaction with glutathione. This observation suggests that the electron-withdrawing potential of the C5 cyano group serves to increase the electrophilicity of the C6 carbon (via stabilization of the transition state) and favors reaction with the nucleophilic thiol. The mechanistic insights gained from these studies should assist medicinal chemistry efforts toward the design of analogs that retain primary pharmacology but are latent toward reaction with biological nucleophiles, thus mitigating the potential for toxicological outcome due to adduction with glutathione or proteins.