Discovery of phenylsulfonyl acetic acid derivatives with improved efficacy and safety as potent free fatty acid receptor 1 agonists for the treatment of type 2 diabetes
structure-activity relationship study based on the previleged scaffolds led to the discovery of 2-(4-[(2'-chloro-[1,1'-biphenyl]-3-yl)methoxy]phenyl)sulfonyl}acetic acid (compound 20), which showed a better balance than compound 2 in terms of physicochemicalproperties, cytotoxicity profiles and pharmacokinetic properties. Subsequent in vivo studies demonstrated that compound 20 robustly improves the