Structural changes of benzylether derivatives of vesamicol and their influence on the binding selectivity to the vesicular acetylcholine transporter

18F labelled vesamicol analogues, which bind to the vesicular acetylcholine transporter (VAChT) in central cholinergic nerve terminals, are expected to be potential radioligands for the visualisation of cholinergic transmission deficits via positron emission tomography (PET). In this report the regioselective synthesis of five novel vesamicol analogues as well as their in vitro binding properties to the VAChT are described. Beside having the 4-fluorobenzylether-substitution at the cyclohexyl ring as an unique structural feature, the new compounds are additionally modified at the phenyl and piperidine moiety of the vesamicol skeleton. The affinity and selectivity to the VAChT were analysed by competitive binding studies using tritium labelled radioligands. The VAChT affinities (Ki-values) of the novel compounds were estimated ranging between 7.8 ± 3.5 nM and 161.6 ± 17.3 nM, thus some of them are binding with higher affinity to the transporter than vesamicol. However, the compounds tested demonstrated also affinities to the sigma receptors σ1 and σ2 ranging between 4.1 ± 1.5 nM and 327.5 ± 75.9 nM. Nevertheless, these data provide the basis for future structure-binding-studies and further underline the potential and usefulness of vesamicol analogues for imaging of the VAChT.