ERbeta ligands. Part 2: Synthesis and structure-activity relationships of a series of 4-hydroxy-biphenyl-carbaldehyde oxime derivatives.

A series of biphenyl carbaldehyde oximes (6) was prepared and shown to have significant selectivity for the estrogen receptor-beta (ERbeta). The exploitation of the oxime moiety as a hydrogen bond donating group, which mimicked the C-ring of genistein makes these compounds unique. Molecular modeling studies showed the oxime moiety hydrogen bonding to the histidine residue, which was supported by the structure-activity relationships. The most potent compounds in this study had IC50 values in a radioligand binding assay of between 8-35 nM. Among the most selective compounds were 6i and 6s (49- and 31-fold ERbeta selective, respectively).