Abstract:
A series of tacrine-phenol-bifendate hybrids (
7a-
7e,
8a-
8e) were designed, synthesized and evaluated as inhibitors of cholinesterases (ChEs) with low hepatotoxicity. All the compounds had potent ChEs inhibitory activity with half-inhibitory concentration (IC
50) values at the nanomolar range. Compound
8d exhibited the strongest inhibition to acetylcholinesterase (AChE) with an IC
50 value of 156.39 nmol·L
-1 and compound
7b showed the most potent inhibition for butyrylcholinesterase with IC
50 value of 16.33 nmol·L
-1. Kinetic and molecular modeling studies showed that
8d targeted both the catalytic active site and the peripheral anionic site of AChE. In addition, these compounds showed low toxicity to hepatocytes, and compound
8d did not increase the level of reactive oxygen species in HepG2 cells.