Modafinil is a wake promoting compound with high potential for cognitive enhancement. It is targeting the dopamine transporter (DAT) with moderate selectivity, thereby leading to reuptake inhibition and increased dopamine levels in the synaptic cleft. A series of modafinil analogues have been reported so far, but more target-specific analogues remain to be discovered. It was the aim of this study to synthesize and characterize such analogues and, indeed, a series of compounds were showing higher activities on the DAT and a higher selectivity toward DAT versus serotonin and norepinephrine transporters than modafinil. This was achieved by substituting the amide moiety by five- and six-membered aromatic heterocycles. In vitro studies indicated binding to the cocaine pocket on DAT, although molecular dynamics revealed binding different from that of cocaine. Moreover, no release of dopamine was observed, ruling out amphetamine-like effects. The absence of neurotoxicity of a representative analogue may encourage further preclinical studies of the above-mentioned compounds.

中文翻译：

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作为新型非典型多巴胺转运蛋白抑制剂的莫达非尼的杂环类似物

莫达非尼是一种促进唤醒的化合物，具有增强认知的潜力。它以适度的选择性靶向多巴胺转运蛋白（DAT），从而导致再摄取抑制和突触裂隙中多巴胺水平升高。到目前为止，已经报道了一系列莫达非尼类似物，但是还有更多的靶标类似物仍有待发现。这项研究的目的是合成和表征此类类似物，事实上，与5-羟色胺和去甲肾上腺素转运蛋白相比，与莫达非尼相比，一系列化合物对DAT的活性更高，对DAT的选择性更高。这是通过用五元和六元芳族杂环取代酰胺部分来实现的。体外研究表明与DAT上的可卡因口袋结合，尽管分子动力学显示结合与可卡因不同。此外，未观察到多巴胺释放，排除了苯丙胺样作用。代表性类似物没有神经毒性可能会鼓励对上述化合物进行进一步的临床前研究。