Spirocyclic piperidines; Pharmacophore model; Molecular modeling experiments; Theoretical considerations

We designed and synthesized 1α- and 1β-hydroxymethyl-2α-(3-hydroxypropyl)-25-hydroxyvitamin D3 (2a,b) and related analogues 2α-(3-hydroxypropyl)-25-hydroxyvitamin D3 (3), Posner’s analogues of 1α- and 1β-hydroxymethyl-25-hydroxyvitamin D3 (4a,b), as well as 2α-(3-hydroxypropyl)-1α,25-dihydroxyvitamin D3 (5), to confirm the effect of the 1α-hydroxy group and/or 2α-(3-hydroxypropyl) group of vitamin D3 analogues with the modified A-ring moiety on the mutant vitamin D receptor, VDR(Arg274Leu). The 2α-(3-hydroxypropyl) group showed better effect on enhancement of the transcriptional activity through the mutant VDR than the 1α- and 1β-hydroxymethyl groups.