Design, synthesis and biological evaluation of novel copper-chelating acetylcholinesterase inhibitors with pyridine and N-benzylpiperidine fragments.

Cholinergic depletion is the direct cause of disability and dementia among AD patients. AChE is a classical and key target of cholinergic disorders. Some new inhibitors of AChE combining pyridine, acylhydrazone and N-benzylpiperidine fragments were developed in this work. The hit structure was optimized to yield the compound 21 with an IC50 value of 6.62 nM against AChE, while almost no inhibitory effect against BChE. ADMET predictions and PAMPA permeability evaluation showed good drug-like property. The higher activity with an intermediate alkyl chain substitution indicates a new binding mode of inhibitor with AChE. This finding provides new insights into the binding mechanism and is helpful for discovery of novel high-activity AChE inhibitors.