Monday, November 14, 2011

p-(4-Azipentyl)propofol: A Potent Photoreactive General Anesthetic Derivative of Propofol


In this paper, a photoreactive analog of the commonly used anesthetic propofol was synthesized. They were able to synthesize a compound substituted with a diazirine functionality which exhibits a similar potency of propofol. This compound inhibits GABA receptor and is an allosteric binder of both agonist and benzodiazepine sites, it is a good probe to study propofol binding sites.
Something I found interesting about this paper, is that the photo cross-linking group on the para position mainly reacts with nucleophilic residues (of tyrosine and methionine); whereas a previously reported photoactivable propofol analog which is substituted with a diazirine group in the meta position has a different photoselectivity for amino acid residues. Comparing the results obtained with these 2 probes might allow more detailed understanding of propofol binding sites.

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