Structure-guided optimization of estrogen receptor binding affinity and antagonist potency of pyrazolopyrimidines with basic side chains.

2,3-Diarylpyrazolo[1,5-a]pyrimidines are estrogen receptor (ER) antagonists of modest potency that we have described previously. Guided by the crystal structure of an ER-ligand complex that we have obtained with one of these compounds, we prepared analogs that contain a basic side chain at the 2- or 3-aryl group and quickly found one that, according to the structure-based prediction, shows an increase in binding affinity and antagonist potency and a loss of residual agonist activity.