Mineralocorticoid Receptor Antagonists

Two mineralocorticoid receptor antagonists, spironolactone and eplerenone, are currently approved by the FDA. Several non-steroid based ligands are in clinical trials for indications including heart failure, hypertension and diabetic kidney disease, and even more structurally distinct chemical series are reported in the literature with preclinical data from animal models. Design of new ligands that are both selective over the other oxosteroid receptors (GR, PR and AR) and possess properties compatible with oral dosing, despite the overall lipophilic binding pocket of MR, remains a challenge. High-throughput screening has been successfully used to identify novel starting points in several drug discovery programs, and these were optimized using property based drug design, often aided by protein-ligand X-ray complex structures.