Nonacidic Chemotype Possessing N-Acylated Piperidine Moiety as Potent Farnesoid X Receptor (FXR) Antagonists

Farnesoid X receptor (FXR) plays a major role in the control of cholesterol metabolism. Antagonizing transcriptional activity of FXR is an effective means to treat the relevant metabolic syndrome. Some of antagonists so far have the charged functions; however, they may negatively affect the pharmacokinetics. We describe herein a structure–activity relationship (SAR) exploration of nonacidic FXR antagonist 6 focusing on two regions in the structure and biological evaluation of nonacidic 10 with the characteristic N-acylated piperidine group obtained from SAR studies. As the robust affinity to FXR is feasible with our nonacidic analogue, 10 is among the most promising candidates for in vivo testing.