A series of 1, 3-dioxolane-based ligands, bearing hydroxymethyl or ester functionalities, was synthesized and tested as potential muscarinic antagonists. The compounds display moderate to low affinity for the three receptor subtypes M1-M3, with some of them showing a significant selectivity for the M3 subtype. The configurational and conformational properties were studied using NOE experiments and vicinal coupling constants. The 1H and 13C ...