Regioselective alkylation of 1,3,4,5-tetrahydrobenzo[d]azepin-2-one and biological evaluation of the resulting alkylated products as potentially selective 5-HT₂c agonists.

The benzazepine ring system has offered interesting CNS-active medicinal agents. Taking this privileged structure as the basic scaffold, [Formula: see text] and/or [Formula: see text]-alkylated benzazepin-2-one derivatives and their reduced analogs have been prepared as potential [Formula: see text] receptor agonists. The selective alkylation at the [Formula: see text] and/or [Formula: see text] positions of this seven-membered lactam ring is here reported for the first time under different reaction conditions. The synthesized compounds were evaluated for their biological profile as potential [Formula: see text] agonists using a classic pharmacological approach. Three derivatives (15, 17, and 20) have shown promising [Formula: see text] agonistic activity which can be further optimized as anti-obesity agents for the treatment of male sexual dysfunction. Further, a homology model for [Formula: see text] receptor was generated using MODELLER, and ligand-receptor interactions for these potential molecules were studied.