Synthesis and pharmacological studies for new benzotriazole and dibenzodiazepine derivatives as antipsychotic agents

Abstract

New benzotriazoles (5-8) or dibenzodiazepine derivatives (11-18) were synthesized starting from 3-[(2-amino-4,5-disubstitutedphenyl)amino]-5,5-disubstitutedcyclohex-2-enones (1-4) through internal coupling of their diazonium salts or internal Mannich reaction in the presence of aromatic aldehydes. Pharmacological evaluation of benzotriazole and dibenzodiazepine derivatives for their clozapine-like properties revealed that dibenzodiazepine 11 bearing 4-bromophenyl group exhibited the same antipsychotic activity as the reference drug clozapine while the activity of benzotriazole 7 was 25% lesser than that of clozapine. Moreover, compounds 7 and 11 did not show significant CNS depressant activity as well as no or slight neurotoxicity on contrast to clozapine when tested in mice using forced swim, rotarod and horizontal screen tests.