Patent ID: 7049304

Claim:
A method of treating a subject afflicted with a condition selected from the group consisting of Type II diabetes mellitus, impaired glucose tolerance, hypertension, coronary thrombosis, stroke, lipid syndromes, hyperglycemia, hypertriglyceridemia, hyperlipidemia, sleep apnea, hiatal hernia, reflux esophagisitis, osteoarthritis, gout, gallstones, kidney stones, pulmonary hypertension, infertility and cardiovascular disease, the method comprising the step of administering to the subject an effective amount of a compound represented by the following structural formula: or a pharmaceutically acceptable salt thereof, wherein: Z and Z′ are independently —O—, —NH— or —S—; Ar is a substituted or unsubstituted aryl group; X is an electron withdrawing group; R is a substituted or unsubstituted straight chained hydrocarbyl group optionally comprising one or more amine, ammonium, ether, thioether or phenylene linking groups; Y is —H, an amine, —[NH—(CH 2 ) q ] r —NH 2 , halogen, —CF 3 , thiol, ammonium, —OH, —COOH, —SO 3 H, —OSO 3 H or phosphonium group covalently bonded to the terminal position of R, provided that when Y is —H and R is a straight chained hydrocarbyl group, then R has from 1 to 30 carbon atoms, and provided that each —NH— in —[NH—(CH 2 ) q ] r —NH 2 is optionally N-alkylated or N,N-dialkylated and —NH 2 in —[NH—(CH 2 ) q ] r —NH 2 is optionally N-alkylated, N,N-dialkylated or N,N,N-trialkylated; q is an integer from 2 to about 10; r is an integer from 1 to about 5; R 1 and R 1 ′ are independently —H, an aliphatic group, a substituted aliphatic group, an aryl group or a substituted aryl group or, taken together, are a C2–C5 substituted or unsubstituted alkylene group optionally comprising an amine linking group [—N + (R 1a )—]; and R 1a is —H, alkyl, substituted alkyl, phenyl or substituted phenyl.