Zopiclone chemical structure

Figure 19.6 The chemical structure of the imidazopyridine and benzodiazepine (BZi) receptor ligand, zolpidem, and the cyclopyrrolone, zopiclone...

Zolpidem (an imidazopyridine) and zopiclone (a cyclopyrrolone) are hypnotics that, despite their different chemical structure, possess agonist activity at the benzodiazepine receptor (p. 226). 

Several drugs with novel chemical structures have been introduced more recently for use in sleep disorders. Zolpidem, an imidazopyridine, zaleplon, a pyrazolopyrimidine, and eszopiclone, a cyclopyrrolone (Figure 22-4), although structurally unrelated to benzodiazepines, share a similar mechanism of action, as described below. Eszopiclone is the (S) enantiomer of zopiclone, a hypnotic drug that has been available outside the United States since 1989. Ramelteon, a melatonin receptor agonist, is a new hypnotic drug (see Ramelteon). Buspirone is a slow-onset anxiolytic agent whose actions are quite different from those of conventional sedative-hypnotics (see Buspirone). 

Until about 1980, it was widely accepted that the benzodiazepine structure was a prerequisite for the anxiolytic profile and for the recognition of and binding to the benzodiazepine receptor. More recently, however, a chemically unrelated drug, the cyclopyrrolone zopiclone, has been shown to be a useful sedative hypnotic with a benzodiazepine-like profile. Other chemical classes of drugs that are also structurally dissimilar to the benzodiazepines (e.g. triazolopyridazines) have also been developed and shown to have anxiolytic activity in man these non-benzodiazepines also act via the benzodiazepine receptor. Thus the term "benzodiazepine receptor ligand" has been introduced to describe all drugs, irrespective of their chemical structure, that act on benzodiazepine receptors and thereby modulate inhibitory transmission in the brain. 

Several new anxiolytic and sedative drugs act at the benzodiazepine receptor site, or one of the subsets that comprise this receptor site even though the chemical structure of these molecules differs substantially from the benzodiazepines. One of the first of these compounds to be developed was the cyclopyrrolone zopiclone. A structurally somewhat similar molecule... 

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