Name: Dr. Soumya Sarkar
Diploma / M.Sc degree: Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati, India
(May 2008)

PhD Project: Asymmetric Synthesis of Enantiomerically Pure 3-Benzazepines as NMDA and sigma Receptor Antagonists


Homepage: http://www.uni-muenster.de/Chemie.pz/forschen/ag/wuensch/mitarbeiter/soumya.html

Abstract of Research Project

Our main interest is focused on the NMDA receptor. The NMDA receptor belongs to a group of excitatory ionotropic glutamate receptors which is named after the synthetic compound N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA). The NMDA receptor plays some crucial roles in important physiological processes such as learning and memory. However, overstimulation causes neuronal damage due to uncontrolled opening of NMDA associated Ca⁺² channels (excitotoxicity). Over stimulation is also involved in disorders like epilepsy, Alzheimer's or Parkinson's disease. Therefore the NMDA receptor represents an interesting target for the therapeutic intervention of these neurological diseases. Thus the target of this project is specifically the phencyclidine-(PCP) binding site, which is located within the NMDA receptor associated ion channel. Ligands interacting with the PCP binding site block the influx of Ca²⁺ -ions and therefore function as receptor antagonists.

The receptor binding studies of enantiomerically pure 1-substituted 3-benzazepines with one chiral center at position 1, has already been reported from our group.and now the aim of the project is to synthesize enantiomerically pure substituted 3-benzazepines which may result higher binding activities with NMDA receptor.


Publications

S. Sarkar, R. Fröhlich, B. Wünsch
Unexpected Formation of Thiophene-annulated Tetrahydro-3-benzazepines by Alkylation of Thiolactams with Ethyl Bromoacetate
Z. Naturforsch. 68b (2013), 223–228.

S. Sarkar, S. M. Husain, D. Schepmann, R. Fröhlich, B. Wünsch
Microwave assisted synthesis of 3-benzazepin-2-ones as building blocks for 2,3-disubstituted tetrahydro-3-benzazepines
Tetrahedron 68 (2012), 2687-2695.

S. Sarkar, D. Schepmann, J. Köhler, R. Fröhlich, B. Wünsch
Asymmetric Synthesis of Potent and Selective σ₁ Receptor Ligands with Tetrahydro-3-benzazepine Scaffold
Eur. J. Org. Chem. (2012), 5980–5990.

S. Sarkar, D. Schepmann, B. Wünsch
Asymmetric synthesis of enantiomerically pure 1,4-di- and 1,1,4-trisubstituted tetrahydro-1H-3-benzazepines
Tetrahedron: Asymmetry 22 (2011), 1411–1422.


Soumya Sarkar
eMail: Soumya Sarkar