Design, synthesis and biological evaluation of coumarin derivatives as novel acetylcholinesterase inhibitors that attenuate H2O2-induced apoptosis in SH-SY5Y cells

Abstract

A novel series of coumarin derivatives were designed, synthesized and investigated for inhibition of cholinesterase, including acetyl cholinesterase (AChE) and butyrylcholinesterase (BuChE). This biological study showed that these compounds containing piperazine ring had significant inhibition activities on AChE rather than BuChE. Further study suggested that 9x, as one of this kind of structure derivative, showed the strongest inhibition activity on AChE with an IC50 value of 34nM. Moreover, molecular docking, flow cytometry (FCM), and western blot assay suggested that 9x could induce cytoprotective autophagy to attenuate H2O2-induced cell death in human neuroblastoma SH-SY5Y cells. These findings highlight a new approach for the development of a novel potential neuroprotective compound targeting AChE with autophagy-inducing activity in future Alzheimer’s disease (AD) therapy.