Discovery of Isoquinolinoquinazolinones as a Novel Class of Potent PPARγ Antagonists with Anti-adipogenic Effects

Conformational change in helix 12 can alter ligand-induced PPARγ activity; based on this reason, isoquinolinoquinazolinones, structural homologs of berberine, were designed and synthesized as PPARγ antagonists. Computational docking and mutational study indicated that isoquinolinoquinazolinones form hydrogen bonds with the Cys285 and Arg288 residues of PPARγ. Furthermore, SPR results demonstrated strong binding affinity of isoquinolinoquinazolinones towards PPARγ. Additionally, biological assays showed that this new series of PPARγ antagonists more strongly inhibit adipocyte differentiation and PPARγ2-induced transcriptional activity than GW9662.