Lowering Lipophilicity by Adding Carbon: One-Carbon Bridges of Morpholines and Piperazines

J Med Chem. 2018 Oct 11;61(19):8934-8943. doi: 10.1021/acs.jmedchem.8b01148. Epub 2018 Sep 20.

Abstract

In this article, we report our investigation of a phenomenon by which bridging morpholines across the ring with one-carbon tethers leads to a counterintuitive reduction in lipophilicity. This effect was also found to occur in piperazines and piperidines and lowered the measured log D7.4 of the bridged molecules by as much as -0.8 relative to their unbridged counterparts. As lowering lipophilicity without introducing additional heteroatoms can be desirable, we believe this potentially provides a useful tactic to improve the drug-like properties of molecules containing morpholine-, piperazine-, and piperidine-like motifs.

MeSH terms

  • Carbon / chemistry*
  • Hydrophobic and Hydrophilic Interactions*
  • Models, Molecular
  • Molecular Structure
  • Morpholines / chemistry*
  • Piperazines / chemistry*
  • Piperidines / chemistry*

Substances

  • Morpholines
  • Piperazines
  • Piperidines
  • piperidine
  • Carbon