Development of an N-Acyl Amino Acid That Selectively Inhibits the Glycine Transporter 2 To Produce Analgesia in a Rat Model of Chronic Pain

Inhibitors that target the glycine transporter 2, GIyT2, show promise as analgesics, but may be limited by their toxicity through complete or irreversible binding. Acyl-glycine inhibitors, however, are selective for GIyT2 and have been shown to provide analgesia in animal models of pain with minimal side effects, but are comparatively weak GIyT2 inhibitors. Here, we modify the simple acyl-glycine by synthesizing lipid analogues with a range of amino acid head groups in both L- and D-configurations, to produce nanomolar affinity, selective GIyT2 inhibitors. The potent inhibitor oleoyl-D-lysine (33) is also resistant to degradation in both human and rat plasma and liver microsomes, and is rapidly absorbed following an intraperitoneal injection to rats and readily crosses the blood-brain barrier. We demonstrate that 33 provides greater analgesia at lower doses, and does not possess the severe side effects of the very slowly reversible GIyT2 inhibitor, ORG25543 (2).