Synthesis of novel carboxamide- and carbohydrazide-benzimidazoles as selective butyrylcholinesterase inhibitors.

Selectively inhibiting butyrylcholinesterase (BChE) is hypothesized to help in the management of Alzheimer's disease (AD). Several studies have determined a correlation between the increased activity of BChE and the onset of AD. An advantage of BChE over acetylcholinesterase inhibition is that absence of BChE activity does not lead to obvious physiological disturbance. However, currently no BChE inhibitors are available commercially as potential therapeutics for AD. In our continuous effort to find potent BChE inhibitors for Alzheimer's disease, a total of 22 novel benzimidazoles with diversified substitutions were synthesized and evaluated for their anticholinesterase activities in this study. Among the synthesized compounds, 2j and 3f were found to exhibit potent and selective BChE inhibition with IC50 values of 1.13 and 1.46 µM, respectively. Molecular docking studies were carried out to rationalize the observed inhibitory activities. The compounds were predicted to have high penetration across the blood-brain barrier. Moreover, cell proliferative studies were also performed to evaluate the toxicity profile of the interested compounds. Compound 3f was found to be a potent and selective butyrylcholinesterase inhibitor with an IC50 value of 1.46 µM.

Insight into Mechanism of Action of Anticancer Benzazoles.

BACKGROUND: Targeting the DNA topoisomerase II enzyme (topo II) is a promising anticancer treatment approach. TopoII controls and modifies the topological states of DNA and plays key roles in DNA replication, transcription, and chromosome segregation. The DNA binding and cleavage domain is one of the active sites of this enzyme. It is known that topoisomerase inhibitors, also known as topoisomerase poisons, bind to the transient enzyme-DNA complex and inhibit the religation of DNA, generating single- and double-stranded breaks that harm the integrity of the genome. This ultimately leads to the accumulation of DNA strand breaks and cell death. METHODS: Our previously synthesized benzazole derivatives were tested for their eukaryotic DNA topoisomerase II inhibitory activity in a cell-free system. Their interactions with the enzyme were studied by carrying out molecular docking studies using and comparing two different docking programs. RESULTS: The results of the docking studies clarified binding modes of these compounds to the topoisomerase II enzyme. CONCLUSION: This study also provides guidelines to design novel and more potent antitumor agents functioning as human topoisomerase II enzyme inhibitors.