Effect of the 3- and 4-Methyl Groups on the Opioid Receptor Properties of N-Substituted trans-3,4-Dimethyl-4-(3-hydroxyphenyl)piperidines

N-substituted trans-3,4-dimethyl-4-(3-hydroxyphenyl)piperidines (2a,b) are opioid receptor antagonists where the antagonist properties are not due to the type of N-substituent. In order to gain a better understanding of the contribution that the 3- and 4-methyl groups make to the pure antagonist properties of 2a,b, we synthesized analogues of 2a,b that lacked the 4-methyl (5a,b), 3-methyl (6a,b), and both the 3- and 4-methyl group (7a,b) and compared their opioid receptor properties. We found that (1) all N-methyl and N-phenylpropyl substituted compounds were nonselective opioid antagonists (2) all N-phenylpropyl analogues were more potent than their N-methyl counterparts, and (3) compounds 2a,b which have both a 3- and 4-methyl substituent, were more potent antagonists than analogues 5a,b, 6a,b, and 7a,b. We also found that the removal of 3-methyl substituent of N-methyl and N-phenylpropyl 3-methyl-4-(3-hydroxyphenyl)piperazines (8a,b) gives (4a,b), which are opioid antagonists.