A naphthalene compound was chosen as lead compound to develop a new series of fibrinogen receptor antagonists. Eight new compounds with different condensed heterocyclic parts were prepared and their in vitro activities were evaluated. 5-Amidinobenzofuran compound 2, 6-amidinobenzothiophene 7, and 5-amidinofuro[2,3-b]pyridine 8 were more active than lead compound 1. Molecular orbital calculation studies suggested the presence of a preferred spatial orientation between the amidine and the carboxylic acid.

The synthesis and design using molecular modeling techniques for non-peptide, low molecular weight novel fibrinogen receptor (glycoprotein IIb/IIIa: Gp IIb/IIIa) antagonists, is reported. We used a highly potent serine protease inhibitor, Nafamostat, having an amidinonaphthyl unit as the starting compound. The compounds 4-(6-amidino-2-naphthylaminocarbonyl)phenoxyacetic acid (5a) and 4-(6-amidino-2-naphthalenecarboxamido)phenoxyacetic acid (5b) inhibited adenosin-5'-diphospate (ADP)-induced aggregation of human platelet-rich plasma (PRP) with IC50 values of 0.05 and 0.07 microM, respectively, and had lost their ability to inhibit a variety of serine proteases, including thrombin, factor Xa, plasmin and trypsin.

Peptidyl difluoromethylene ketone derivatives were designed to take advantage of probable additional interactions with the S' subsite of human heart chymase. They showed potent inhibitory activities against human heart chymase and were more efficient than bovine chymotrypsin.

In continuation of our previous work on eosinophilia inhibitors, we synthesized an additional series of inhibitors, which consisted of 5-amino-1-[(methylamino)thiocarbonyl]-1H-1,2,4-triazole derivatives and a newly developed series of 1,2,4-triazolo[1,5-a]-1,3,5-triazine derivatives. We evaluated their inhibitory activity on the airway eosinophilia model, which was induced by the intravenous (iv) injection of Sephadex particles. In the 1,2,4-triazole series with various substituents at the 3 position of the triazole ring such as 2-furyl, pyridyl, and phenoxy, none of derivatives had comparable activity to the previously reported compound GCC-AP0341, 5-amino-3-(4-chlorophenyl)-1-[(methylamino)thiocarbonyl]-1H-1,2, 4-triazole. In the triazolo[1,5-a]triazine series, 2-(4-chlorophenyl)-6-methyl-1,2,4-triazolo[1,5-a]-1,3, 5-triazine-7(6H)-thione (3h) was highly potent, and when given orally it had an ID50 value of 0.3 mg/kg, which is comparable to that of GCC-AP0341. The fact that the structure-activity relationship of these two series was quite similar suggests that a common substructure, such as the 1,2,4-triazole ring with a substituted phenyl ring at the 3 position and a thiocarbonyl moiety at the 1 position, could contribute to the activity. Our selected compound 3h was less active than GCC-AP0341 in the antigen-induced hyper-responsiveness model in guinea pigs; however, we plan to carry out further studies on eosinophil functions, especially on their activation, using our two compounds, 3h and GCC-AP0341.

The following alterations should be made to the text to improve the clarity of the paper: Page 919. The authors and affiliations should read as follows: Masahiro Eda’, Atsuyuki Ashimori’,‘, Fumihiko Akahoshi’, Takuya Yoshimura’, Yoshihisa Inoue’, Chikara Fukaya’, Masahide Nakajima’, Hajime Fukuyama’, Teruaki Imada’, Shinji Taka?, Naotaka Shiota*, Mizuo Miyazaki*, Norifumi Nakamura’