Design, Synthesis, and Biological Evaluation of Arylimidazole Derivatives as Potent PPAR delta Agonists for the Treatment of Renal Fibrosis.
Feng, Z., Xie, J., Hou, D., Fu, Z., Sun, S., Liu, X., Sun, G., Zheng, R., Liu, L., Xu, Q., Wen, X., Zhang, D., Yuan, H., Sun, H., Dai, L.(2026) J Med Chem 69: 4469-4492
- PubMed: 41667192 Search on PubMed
- DOI: https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jmedchem.5c03132
- Primary Citation Related Structures: 
8ZNN - PubMed Abstract: 
Peroxisome proliferator-activator receptor δ (PPARδ) is ubiquitously expressed in the kidney, and its agonists are increasingly being recognized as a potential therapeutic strategy for renal diseases. In this work, we developed a series of arylimidazole derivatives as potent PPARδ agonists. Among them, compound 16a exhibited potent PPARδ agonistic activity (EC 50 = 0.50 nM) and high selectivity over PPARα/γ and some other nuclear receptors. The X-ray cocrystal structure revealed the binding mode of 16a and PPARδ at 1.94 Å resolution. Remarkably, compound 16a exhibited acceptable pharmacokinetic properties and good safety profiles in vivo and showed antirenal fibrosis effects in a dose-dependent manner in a mouse model of unilateral ureteral obstruction. Mechanistically, 16a activated PPARδ to restore fatty acid oxidation to attenuate TGF-β1-induced renal fibroblast activation. Collectively, 16a warrants further investigation as a promising drug candidate for treating renal fibrosis.
- Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Drug Discovery for Metabolic Disease, State Key Laboratory of Natural Medicines, China Pharmaceutical University, Nanjing 210009, China.
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