O-Hydroxyl- or o-amino benzylamine-tacrine hybrids: Multifunctional biometals chelators, antioxidants, and inhibitors of cholinesterase activity and amyloid-β aggregation

Abstract

In an effort to identify novel multifunctional drug candidates for the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease (AD), a series of hybrid molecules were synthesised by reacting N-(aminoalkyl)tacrine with salicylic aldehyde or derivatives of 2-aminobenzaldehyde. These compounds were then evaluated as multifunctional anti-Alzheimer’s disease agents. All of the hybrids are potential biometal chelators, and in addition, most of them were better antioxidants and inhibitors of cholinesterases and amyloid-β (Aβ) aggregation than the lead compound tacrine. Compound 7c has the potential to be a candidate for AD therapy: it is a much better inhibitor of acetylcholinesterase (AChE) than tacrine (IC50: 0.55nM vs 109nM), has good biometal chelation ability, is able to inhibit Aβ aggregation and has moderate antioxidant activity (1.22 Trolox equivalents).