To find potent and selective inhibitors of dipeptidyl peptidase IV (DPP-IV), we synthesized a series of 2-cyanopyrrolidine derivatives with constrained imidazolidin ring and tested their activities against DPP-IV. Most of them exhibited submicromolar inhibitory activities against DPP-IV. The most potent compound among these is (S)-1-(2-(2-(3-(3, 4-dimethoxyphenyl)-2- oxoimidazolidin-1-yl) ethyl-amino) acetyl) pyrrolidine-2-carbonitrile (6n), which is a 2nM ...