Using DEA Models for Ranking Compounds as Acetylcholinesterase Inhibitors in the Management of Alzheimer's

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is one of the most prevalent disorders which can mainly occur due to the imbalance of acetylcholinesterase enzyme in the brain. Acetylcholinesterase is an enzyme responsible for the hydrolysis and subsequently, deficiency of the neurotransmitter, acetylcholine (Ach.) in the AD. Seeking for medicinal compounds with the ability to inhibit the regarding enzyme is one of the main targets in the management of AD. Generally, efficiency and therapeutic effects of medicaments with the underlying mechanism of enzyme inhibition are evaluated and determined via a value, called IC50 (the concentration, in which 50% of inhibition would be achieved). In this study, via the employment of the data envelopment analysis (DEA) method, the ranking model is used to determine the most desirable agent among 16 medicinally-synthetic compounds with 626 descriptors. All of those medicaments possessed inhibitory activities against the acetylcholinesterase enzyme. Herein, we considered each synthetic medicament as decision-making units, and the descriptors as inputs and outputs parameters of the DEA models. Via the DEA method, selected synthetic compounds have been ranked to determine the best agents. The outcomes have been compared with the in vitro results.