Design, synthesis, and PPARγ agonistic activity of novel indenone derivatives

Agonists of peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor γ (PPARγ) are of interest as a treatment of type II diabetes, and indenone derivatives are a new class of non-TZD PPARγ agonists.  Based on existing indenone derivatives, a series of novel ones have been designed and synthesized.  Meanwhile the structures have been comfirmed with ¹H NMR and MS.  Among them, 17b and 19 showed higher agonistic activities than rosiglitazone.