eprosartan and forasartan

The angiotensin II (AII) type 1 receptor antagonists represent a new pharmacologic class of drugs that are specifically designed to displace AII from its type 1 receptor subtype. These drugs antagonize AII-induced biologic actions, including smooth-muscle contraction, sympathetic pressor mechanisms, and aldosterone release. Initial clinical trials suggest that these drugs are effective in the treatment of essential hypertension and hypertensive patients with intrinsic renal disease. Thus, they are the newest addition to the therapeutic armamentarium for the treatment of hypertensive diseases. We review the developmental history and pharmacology of the AII type 1 receptor antagonists. We specifically discuss the following factors: mechanism(s) of action; members under clinical investigation; effects on renal function, salt and water excretion, and plasma renin activity, plasma AII type 1, and plasma aldosterone concentrations; and efficacy and safety. Given the demonstrable benefits of AII type 1 receptor blockade, these drugs should achieve broad utility in the treatment of hypertensive diseases.

Topics: Acrylates; Angiotensin Receptor Antagonists; Animals; Antihypertensive Agents; Benzimidazoles; Benzoates; Biphenyl Compounds; Humans; Imidazoles; Irbesartan; Losartan; Pyridines; Quinolines; Telmisartan; Tetrazoles; Thiophenes; Valine; Valsartan

Chemical feature based pharmacophore models were elaborated for angiotensin II receptor subtype 1 (AT(1)) antagonists using both a quantitative and a qualitative approach (Catalyst HypoGen and HipHop algorithms, respectively). The training sets for quantitative model generation consisted of 25 selective AT(1) antagonists exhibiting IC(50) values ranging from 1.3 nM to 150 microM. Additionally, a qualitative pharmacophore hypothesis was derived from multiconformational structure models of the two highly active AT(1) antagonists 4u (IC(50) = 0.2 nM) and 3k (IC(50) = 0.7 nM). In the case of the quantitative model, the best pharmacophore hypothesis consisted of a five-features model (Hypo1: seven points, one hydrophobic aromatic, one hydrophobic aliphatic, a hydrogen bond acceptor, a negative ionizable function, and an aromatic plane function). The best qualitative model consisted of seven features (Hypo2: 11 points, two aromatic rings, two hydrogen bond acceptors, a negative ionizable function, and two hydrophobic functions). The obtained pharmacophore models were validated on a wide set of test molecules. They were shown to be able to identify a range of highly potent AT(1) antagonists, among those a number of recently launched drugs and some candidates presently undergoing clinical tests and/or development phases. The results of our study provide confidence for the utility of the selected chemical feature based pharmacophore models to retrieve structurally diverse compounds with desired biological activity by virtual screening.

Topics: Acrylates; Algorithms; Angiotensin II; Biphenyl Compounds; Databases, Factual; Imidazoles; Lactones; Losartan; Models, Molecular; Molecular Conformation; Pyridines; Quantitative Structure-Activity Relationship; Receptor, Angiotensin, Type 1; Receptors, Angiotensin; Sulfones; Tetrazoles; Thiophenes