The in silico and in vitro analysis of donepezil derivatives for Anopheles acetylcholinesterase inhibition.

Current studies on Anopheles anticholinesterase insecticides are focusing on identifying agents with high selectivity towards Anopheles over mammalian targets. Acetylcholinesterase (AChE) from electric eel is often used as the bioequivalent enzyme to study ligands designed for activity and inhibition in human. In this study, previously identified derivatives of a potent AChE, donepezil, that have exhibited low activity on electric eel AChE were assessed for potential AChE-based larvicidal effects on four African malaria vectors; An. funestus, An. arabiensis, An. gambiae and An. coluzzii. This led to the identification of four larvicidal agents with a lead molecule, 1-benzyl-N-(thiazol-2-yl) piperidine-4-carboxamide 2 showing selectivity for An. arabiensis as a larvicidal AChE agent. Differential activities of this molecule on An. arabiensis and electric eel AChE targets were studied through molecular modelling. Homology modelling was used to generate a three-dimensional structure of the An. arabiensis AChE for this binding assay. The conformation of this molecule and corresponding interactions with the AChE catalytic site was markedly different between the two targets. Assessment of the differences between the AChE binding sites from electric eel, human and Anopheles revealed that the electric eel and human AChE proteins were very similar. In contrast, Anopheles AChE had a smaller cysteine residue in place of bulky phenylalanine group at the entrance to the catalytic site, and a smaller aspartic acid residue at the base of the active site gorge, in place of the bulky tyrosine residues. Results from this study suggest that this difference affects the ligand orientation and corresponding interactions at the catalytic site. The lead molecule 2 also formed more favourable interactions with An. arabiensis AChE model than other Anopheles AChE targets, possibly explaining the observed selectivity among other assessed Anopheles species. This study suggests that 1-benzyl-N-(thiazol-2-yl) piperidine-4-carboxamide 2 may be a lead compound for designing novel insecticides against Anopheles vectors with reduced toxic potential on humans.

Novel N-benzylpiperidine carboxamide derivatives as potential cholinesterase inhibitors for the treatment of Alzheimer's disease.

A series of fifteen acetylcholinesterase inhibitors were designed and synthesised based upon the previously identified lead compound 5,6-dimethoxy-1-oxo-2,3-dihydro-1H-inden-2-yl 1-benzylpiperidine-4-carboxylate (5) which showed good inhibitory activity (IC50 0.03 ±â€¯0.07 µM) against acetylcholinesterase. A series of compounds were prepared wherein the ester linker in the original lead compound was exchanged for a more metabolically stable amide linker and the indanone moiety was exchanged for a range of aryl and aromatic heterocycles. The two most active analogues 1-benzyl-N-(5,6-dimethoxy-8H-indeno[1,2-d]thiazol-2-yl)piperidine-4-carboxamide (28) and 1-benzyl-N-(1-methyl-3-oxo-2-phenyl-2,3-dihydro-1H-pyrazol-4-yl) piperidine-4-carboxamide (20) afforded in vitro IC50 values of 0.41 ±â€¯1.25 and 5.94 ±â€¯1.08 µM, respectively. In silico screening predicts that 20 will be a blood brain-barrier permeant, and molecular dynamic simulations are indicative of a close correlation between the binding of 20 and the Food and Drug Administration-approved cholinesterase inhibitor donepezil (1).

Targeting Alzheimer's disease by investigating previously unexplored chemical space surrounding the cholinesterase inhibitor donepezil.

A series of twenty seven acetylcholinesterase inhibitors, as potential agents for the treatment of Alzheimer's disease, were designed and synthesised based upon previously unexplored chemical space surrounding the molecular skeleton of the drug donepezil, which is currently used for the management of mild to severe Alzheimer's disease. Two series of analogues were prepared, the first looking at the replacement of the piperidine ring in donepezil with different sized saturated N-containing ring systems and the second looking at the introduction of different linkers between the indanone and piperidine rings in donepezil. The most active analogue 5,6-dimethoxy-1-oxo-2,3-dihydro-1H-inden-2-yl 1-benzylpiperidine-4-carboxylate (67) afforded an in vitro IC50 value of 0.03 ± 0.07 µM against acetylcholinesterase with no cytotoxicity observed (IC50 of >100 µM, SH-SY5Y cell line). In comparison donepezil had an IC50 of 0.05 ± 0.06 µM and an observed cytotoxicity IC50 of 15.54 ± 1.12 µM. Molecular modelling showed a strong correlation between activity and in silico binding in the active site of acetylcholinesterase.