1H-Imidazo[4,5-c]quinoline derivatives as novel potent TNF-alpha suppressors: synthesis and structure-activity relationship of 1-, 2-and 4-substituted 1H-imidazo[4,5-c]quinolines or 1H-imidazo[4,5-c]pyridines.

Structural modification of imiquimod (1), which is known as an interferon-alpha (IFN-alpha) inducer, for the aim of finding a novel and small-molecule tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha) suppressor and structure-activity relationship (SAR) are described. Structural modification of a imiquimod analogue, 4-amino-1-[2-(1-benzyl-4-piperidyl)ethyl-1H-imidazo[4,5-c]quinoline (2), which had moderate TNF-alpha suppressing activity without IFN-alpha inducing activity, led to a finding of 4-chloro-2-phenyl-1-[2-(4-piperidyl)ethyl]-1H-imidazo[4,5-c]quinoline (10) with potent TNF-alpha suppressing activity. The relation between conformational direction of 2-(4-piperidyl)ethyl group at position 1 and TNF-alpha suppressing activity is also demonstrated by NMR.