Discovery of diphenyl amine based sodium channel blockers, effective against hNav1.2

The development of new therapies for chronic pain is an area of unmet medical need. Central to pathways of chronic pain is the upregulation of voltage-gated sodium channels. The use of tricyclic antidepressants, which also have sodium channel activity, in chronic pain therapy prompted us to develop novel compounds from this scaffold. Herein, we show that the tricyclic moiety is not needed for effective inhibition of the [3H]-BTX binding site and sodium currents of hNav1.2. Our lead compound 6, containing a diphenyl amine motif, demonstrated a 53% inhibitory block of Nav1.2 currents at 10 μM, which is greater than 50% increase in current block in comparison to the amitriptyline standard. Altogether our study establishes that the tricyclic motif is unnecessary for hNav1.2 activity and modification of the amine portion is detrimental to sodium channel block.

Modification of an amitriptyline scaffold has provided a potent class of diphenyl amine sodium channel blockersFigure optionsDownload as PowerPoint slide