Pharmacophore-based design,synthesis,and biological evaluation of novel 3-((3,4-dichlorophenyl)(4-substituted benzyl)amino)propanamides as cholesteryl ester transfer protein(CETP)inhibitors

Cholesteryl ester transfer protein （CETP） is a plasma glycoprotein that plays an important role in decreasing high-density lipoprotein cholesterol （HDL-C） levels and increasing low-density lipoprotein cholesterol （LDL-C） levels. Inhibition of CETP may be a new therapy for treating atherosclerosis. Herein, we report the development of a ligand-based pharmacophore model and pharmacophore-based virtual screening of the ZINC/big-n-greasy database, leading to the identification of compound H-10 as a potential CETP inhibitor in vitro. Based on H-10, a series of 3-（（3,4-dichlorophenyl）（4-substituted benzyl）amino） propanamides were designed, synthesized, and evaluated against CETP. Compound 41 was found to have the best activity, resulting in 85.0% inhibition of CETP at l0 μmol/L.

Synthesis of novel β-propanamides to inhibit cholesteryl ester transfer protein(CETP)

A novel series of β-propanamide derivatives as inhibitors of cholesteryl ester transfer protein（CETP）were synthesized.Previously,H3（IC_（50） 2 μmol/L） was observed to inhibit CETP moderately（Xie et ah,2016）.Structural modifications based on H3 led to discovery of the successful CETP inhibitor,known as 1-methyl-4-arylpyrazole.Using a similar approach,compound Q08 was identified as a highly potent CETP inhibitor with an IC_（50） of 490 nmol/L in vitro.