Linagliptin

Properties

Safety Information

Description

Linagliptin (trade names Tradjenta and Trajetna) is an inhibitor of dipeptidyl peptidase-4 (DPP-4) that was approved by the U.S. FDA in May 2011 for the treatment of Type 2 diabetes along with diet and exercise. Linagliptin (BI-1356) has been described as a potent highly selective, slow-off rate and long acting inhibitor of DPP-4. Linagliptin arose from optimization efforts of xanthine-based DPP-4 inhibitors with the initial lead identified from an HTS campaign. After optimizing the activity of the initial micromolar lead, two issues that needed to be addressed were activity for hERG and muscarinic receptor M1. Introduction of a butynyl group at the N7 position of the xanthine ring gave much reduced M1 affinity with no measureable hERG activity. Linagliptin inhibits DPP-4 with an IC₅₀=1 nM and is highly selective (>10,000-fold) against DPP-8 and DPP-9. Linagliptin shows no interactions with CYPs up to 50 mM. The described synthesis of linagliptin starts with 8-bromoxanthine, which is alkylated at the N-7 position to introduce the butyne group, followed by alkylation of the N-1 group to introduce the methyl-quinazoline group. Displacement of the bromide with (R)-Boc-3-amino-piperidine followed by deprotection gives linagliptin. When administered to db/db mice orally, linagliptin dose dependently reduced glucose excursion from 0.1 mg/kg (15% inhibition) to 1 mg/kg (66% inhibition).