The discovery of a selective, high affinity A2B adenosine receptor antagonist for the potential treatment of asthma

Adenosine has been suggested to play a role in asthma, possibly via activation of A2B adenosine receptors on mast cells and other pulmonary cells. We describe our initial efforts to discover a xanthine based selective A2B AdoR antagonist that resulted in the discovery of CVT-5440, a high affinity A2B AdoR antagonist with good selectivity (A2B AdoR Ki = 50 nM, selectivity A1 > 200: A2A > 200: A3 > 167).