Design, synthesis, and evaluation of novel O-alkyl ferulamide derivatives as multifunctional ligands for treating Alzheimer’s disease

Abstract

Herein, a series of novel O-alkyl ferulamide derivatives were designed and synthesised through the multi-target-directed ligands (MTDLs) strategy. The biological activities in vitro showed that compounds 5a, 5d, 5e, 5f, and 5h indicated significantly selective MAO-B inhibitory potency (IC₅₀ = 0.32, 0.56, 0.54, 0.73, and 0.86 μM, respectively) and moderate antioxidant activity. Moreover, compounds 5a, 5d, 5e, 5f, and 5h showed potent anti-inflammatory properties, remarkable effects on self-induced Aβ_1-42 aggregation, and potent neuroprotective effect on Aβ_1-42-induced PC12 cell injury. Furthermore, compounds 5a, 5d, 5e, 5f, and 5h presented good blood–brain barrier permeation in vitro and drug-like properties. More interesting, the PET/CT images with [¹¹C]5f demonstrated that [¹¹C]5f could penetrate the BBB with a high brain uptake and exhibited good brain clearance kinetic property. Therefore, compound 5f would be a promising multi-functional agent for the treatment of AD.

Graphical Abstract

Keywords:

• Alzheimer’s disease
• O-alkyl ferulamide derivatives
• multifunctional agents
• PET-CT imaging

Disclosure statement

The authors declare no competing financial interest.

Additional information

Funding

This work was financially supported by the National-Local Joint Engineering Research Center for Innovative & Generic Chemical Drug, and Guizhou High-level Innovative Talents Supporting Program (2016–4015); The State Key Laboratory of Functions and Applications of Medicinal Plants, Guizhou Medical University (Grant number FAMP202107K); Guizhou Science and Technology Platform Talents (QKHRCPT[2019]5627), and the Special Project of Nanyang Normal University (2022QN003).