Discovery of 1-aryloxyethyl piperazine derivatives as Kv1.5 potassium channel inhibitors (part I).

Kv1.5 potassium channel is an efficacious and safe therapeutic target for the treatment of atrial fibrillation (AF), the most common arrhythmia that threatens human. Herein, by modifying the hit compound 7k from an in-house database, 48 derivatives were synthesized for the assay of their Kv1.5 inhibitory effects by whole cell patch clamp technique. Six compounds which showed better potency than the positive compound dronedarone were selected for the next evaluation of their drug-like properties. Compound 8 exhibited balanced solubility and permeability. It also showed acceptable pharmacodynamics profile with very low acute toxicity. Taking all these data into account, compound 8 can serve as a promising lead for the development of novel therapeutic agent for the treatment of AF.