Gj. Georges et al., CHARACTERIZATION OF THE PHYSICOCHEMICAL PROPERTIES OF THE IMIDAZOPYRIDINE DERIVATIVE ALPIDEM - COMPARISON WITH ZOLPIDEM, European journal of medicinal chemistry, 28(4), 1993, pp. 323-335
Zolpidem and Alpidem are 2 new imidazopyridine derivatives that repres
ent a novel chemical and therapeutic class in the treatment of sleep a
nd anxiety disorders, respectively. The former is a hypnotic agent and
the latter behaves as an anxiolytic drug. In contrast to the benzodia
zepines, both compounds act selectively at the omega1 (BZ1) but not at
the omega2 (BZ2) modulatory sites of the GABA(A) supramolecular compl
ex. The lack of affinity for omega2 (BZ2) modulatory sites may account
for the absence of myorelaxant effects of these drugs. In order to de
termine the parameters that are important for the mode of interaction
of these compounds with omega1, modulatory sites, their physico-chemic
al properties have been characterized and compared. Focus is directed
on crystalline structures obtained from X-ray analysis, and electronic
properties as electrostatic potential maps, atomic charges, delocaliz
ation effects, and electron densities obtained by ab initio molecular
orbital calculations.