Title:Design Synthesis and in vitro Evaluation of Tacrine-flavone Hybrids as
Multifunctional Cholinesterase Inhibitors for Alzheimer’s Disease
Volume: 18
Issue: 4
Author(s): R. S. Remya*, N. Ramalakshmi, C.N. Nalini, V. Niraimathi and S. Amuthalakshmi
Affiliation:
- Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, C. L. Baid Metha College of Pharmacy, The Tamil Nadu Dr. M.G.R. Medical
University, Chennai, India
Keywords:
Alzheimer’s disease, cholinesterase, acetylcholinesterase, butyrylcholinesterase, tacrine, flavone, antioxidant.
Abstract:
Background: Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a multifactorial neurodegenerative disorder.
The multifactorial etiology of AD has led to the design of multitarget directed ligands (MTDL) for
AD. Tacrine an acetylcholinesterase (AChE) inhibitor was the first FDA approved drug for AD but
is discontinued due to hepatotoxicity.
Objective: Present research focused on incorporating a flavone to the tacrine nucleus to enhance the
anti-Alzheimer’s property of the tacrine with the synergistic effect of flavone which is a very good
antioxidant. It is expected that the antioxidant property and hepatoprotective nature of flavones will
reduce the hepatotoxic side effect of tacrine.
Methods: We designed and synthesized ten flavone substituted tacrine derivatives and evaluated for
in vitro AChE and BuChE inhibitoy activity by modified Ellman’s method using eeAChE and
eqBuChE. In vitro antioxidant activity was studied by DPPH radical scavenging assay. Molecular
modeling studies were conducted in Schrodinger and AutoDock Vina with TcAChE(PDB
ID:1H23),hAChE(PDB ID:4EY7) and hBuChE(PDB ID:4TPK).
Results: All the compounds exhibited potent inhibitory effect on AChE and BuChE with IC50 values
in μM concentration. The compounds exhibited very good antioxidant activity in DPPH radical
scavenging assay. Among the compounds the compound AF1 showed highest activity with IC50
value of 0.93 μM for AChE and 1.48 μM for BuChE and also showed significant antioxidant activity
(2.6 nM). A correlation graph was plotted for IC 50 values vs Dock score and the results are
promising with r2 values of 0.62 and 0.73 for AChE and BuChE inhibition respectively which
proved the reliability of docking approaches.
Conclusion: The results highlighted the multifunctional nature of the novel Tacrine-Flavone hybrids
and they may be promising MTDL for AD.