We developed a facile synthesis process for producing optically active non-secosteroidal ligands (YR301-304), which are stereoisomers of LG190178, and evaluated their performance in transcriptional assays using mutant vitamin D receptor (VDR). It was found that all of them had stronger activities than the natural ligand 1α,25-dihydroxyvitamin D3 [1α,25(OH)2D3]. In particular, YR301 showed potent activity for both wild-type and mutant Arg274Leu VDR.
Keywords: Asymmetric reduction, vitamin D receptor, mutant vitamin D receptor, non-secosteroidal ligand, transcriptional assay, molecular modeling study