Thirteen compounds in a new class of fluorinated 5-pyrrolidinylsulfonyl isatin derivatives were synthesised that have potent and selective inhibitory activity against effector caspases- 3 and-7. With in vivo animal PET imaging studies of cerebral ischemia being planned, N- benzylation with selected para-substituted benzylic halides allowed systematic variation of lipophilicity (logP 1.94–3.31) without decreasing inhibition potency (IC50). From this ...
