Tacrine-coumarin and Tacrine-7-chloroquinoline Hybrids with Thiourea Linkers: Cholinesterase Inhibition Properties, Kinetic Study, Molecular Docking and Permeability Assay for Blood-brain Barrier

Background: The design of new heterodimeric dual binding site acetylcholinesterase inhibitors constitutes the main goal-directed to the development of new anticholinesterase agents with the expanded pharmacological profile. Multi-target compounds are usually designed by combining in a hybrid molecule with two or more pharmacophoric moieties that are known to enable interaction with the selected molecular targets. Methods: All compounds were tested for their inhibitory activity on human AChE/BChE. The Ellman´s method was used to determine inhibition kinetics and IC50 values. In order to predict passive bloodbrain penetration of novel compounds, modification of the parallel artificial membrane permeation assay has been used. Docking studies were performed in order to predict the binding modes of new hybrids with hAChE/ hBChE respectively. Results: In this study, we described the design, synthesis, and evaluation of series tacrine-coumarin and tacrine-quinoline compounds which were found to show potential inhibition of ChEs and penetration of the blood-brain barrier. Conclusion: Tacrine-quinoline hybrids 7a exhibited the highest activity towards hBChE (IC50 = 0.97 μmol) and 7d towards hAChE (IC50 = 0.32 μmol). Kinetic and molecular modelling studies revealed that 7d was a mixed-type AChE inhibitor (Ki = 1.69 μmol) and 7a was a mixed-type BChE inhibitor (Ki = 1.09 μmol). Moreover, hybrid 5d and 7c could penetrate the CNS.