A new series of N2-substituted-5-(p-toluenesulfonylamino)phthalimide analogues as α-glucosidase inhibitors

Several members of a new family of non-sugar-type alpha-glycosidase inhibitors, bearing a 5-(p-toluenesulfonylamino)phthalimide moiety and various substituent at the N2 position, were synthesized and their activities were investigated. The newly synthesized compounds displayed different inhibition profile towards yeast alpha-glycosidase and rat intestinal alpha-glycosidase. Almost all the compounds had strong inhibitory activities against yeast alpha-glycosidase. Regarding rat intestinal alpha-glycosidase, only analogs with N2-aromatic substituents displayed varying degrees of inhibitory activities on rat intestinal maltase and lactase and nearly all compounds showed no inhibition against rat intestinal alpha-amylase. Structure-activity relationship studies indicated that 5-(p-toluenesulfonylamino)phthalimide moiety is a favorable scaffold to exert the alpha-glucosidase inhibitory activity and substituents at the N2 position have considerable influence on the efficacy of the inhibition activities. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.