Novel Tacrine-Grafted Ugi Adducts as Multipotent Anti-Alzheimer Drugs: A Synthetic Renewal in Tacrine-Ferulic Acid Hybrids

Herein we describe the design, multicomponent synthesis, and biological, molecular modeling and ADMET studies, as well as in vitro PAMPA-blood-brain barrier (BBB) analysis of new tacrine-ferulic acid hybrids (TFAHs). We identified (E)-3-(hydroxy-3-methoxyphenyl)-N-{8[(7-methoxy-1,2,3,4-tetrahydroacridin-9-yl) amino]octyl}-N-[2-(naphthalen-2-ylamino)2-oxoethyl]acrylamide (TFAH 10n) as a particularly interesting multipotent compound that shows moderate and completely selective inhibition of human butyrylcholinesterase (IC50= 68.2 nm), strong antioxidant activity (4.29 equiv trolox in an oxygen radical absorbance capacity (ORAC) assay), and good beta-amyloid (A beta) anti-aggregation properties (65.6% at 1: 1 ratio); moreover, it is able to permeate central nervous system (CNS) tissues, as determined by PAMPA-BBB assay. Notably, even when tested at very high concentrations, TFAH 10n easily surpasses the other TFAHs in hepatotoxicity profiling (59.4% cell viability at 1000 mu m), affording good neuroprotection against toxic insults such as A beta(1-40), A beta(1-42), H2O2, and oligomycin A/rotenone on SH-SY5Y cells, at 1 mu m. The results reported herein support the development of new multipotent TFAH derivatives as potential drugs for the treatment of Alzheimer's disease.