Schizophrenia hormonal treatments

As Eilbracht and coworkers [38] showed in numerous examples, the reaction cascade hydroformylation—(Fischer indolization) is a useful protocol for the synthesis of three-substituted indoles, including the essential amino acid tryptophan, the tissue hormone melatonin, and the neutrotransmitter serotonin (Figure 5.25). In addition, pharmacologically active tryptamine or homotryptamine derivatives, such as the marketed serotonin agonists sumatriptan, naratriptan, or zolmitriptan, or compounds that show a platelet aggregation inhibitory and antithrombotic effect (vintoperol) can be synthesized by such a protocol. Also active drug components for the treatment of schizophrenia (sertindole) can probably be produced by this approach [39]. It is estimated that the worldwide demand for such indole derivatives is about 20 000 mt/a [40]. 

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