Novel tacrine-based acetylcholinesterase inhibitors as potential agents for the treatment of Alzheimer's disease: Quinolotacrine hybrids

A new series of quinolotacrine hybrids including cyclopenta- and cyclohexa-quinolotacrine derivatives were designed, synthesized, and assessed as anti-cholinesterase (ChE) agents. The designed derivatives indicated higher inhibitory effect on the acetylcholinesterase (AChE) with IC50 values of 0.285-100 mu M compared to butyrylcholinesterase (BChE) with IC50 values of > 100 mu M. Of these compounds, cyclohexa-quinolotacrine hybrids displayed a little better anti-AChE activity than cyclopenta-quinolotacrine hybrids. Compound 8-amino-7-(3- hydroxyphenyl)- 5,7,9,10,11,12-hexahydro-6H-pyrano[2,3b:5,6-c'] diquinolin-6-one (6m) including 3-hydroxyphenyl and cyclohexane ring moieties exhibited the best AChE inhibitory activity with IC50 value of 0.285 mu M. The kinetic and molecular docking studies indicated that compound 6m occupied both the catalytic anionic site (CAS) and peripheral anionic site (PAS) of AChE as a mixed inhibitor. Using neuroprotective assay against H2O2-induced cell death in PC12 cells, the compound 6h illustrated significant protection among the assessed compounds. In silico ADME studies estimated good drug-likeness for the designed compounds. As a result, these quinolotacrine hybrids can be very encouraging AChE inhibitors to treat Alzheimer's disease.

Automated summary

The newly designed quinolotacrine hybrids showed promising inhibitory effects on AChE, with one compound exhibiting the best inhibitory activity. Additionally, these compounds demonstrated significant neuroprotective effects in in vitro experiments.