Design and synthesis of curcumin derivatives as tau and amyloid β dual aggregation inhibitors

Abstract

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is the most common form of dementia. In an AD patient’s brain, senile plaques and neurofibrillary tangles, the abnormal aggregates of amyloid β (Aβ) peptide and tau protein, are observed as the two major hallmarks of this disease. To develop a new drug for treatment of AD, we have designed and synthesized a series of curcumin derivatives and evaluated their inhibitory activities against both tau and Aβ aggregation. In this study, we describe the development of the more potent aggregation inhibitor 3-[(1E)-2-(1H-indol-6-yl)ethenyl]-5-[(1E)-2-[2-methoxy-4-(2-pyridylmethoxy) phenyl] ethenyl]-1H-pyrazole (compound 4, PE859). This compound has a better pharmacokinetic profile and pharmacological efficacy in vivo than curcumin, making it suitable as a drug for AD.