Amyloid binding and beyond: a new approach for Alzheimer's disease drug discovery targeting Aßo-PrPC binding and downstream pathways.

Amyloid ß oligomers (Aßo) are the main toxic species in Alzheimer's disease, which have been targeted for single drug treatment with very little success. In this work we report a new approach for identifying functional Aßo binding compounds. A tailored library of 971 fluorine containing compounds was selected by a computational method, developed to generate molecular diversity. These compounds were screened for Aßo binding by a combined 19F and STD NMR technique. Six hits were evaluated in three parallel biochemical and functional assays. Two compounds disrupted Aßo binding to its receptor PrPC in HEK293 cells. They reduced the pFyn levels triggered by Aßo treatment in neuroprogenitor cells derived from human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSC). Inhibitory effects on pTau production in cortical neurons derived from hiPSC were also observed. These drug-like compounds connect three of the pillars in Alzheimer's disease pathology, i.e. prion, Aß and Tau, affecting three different pathways through specific binding to Aßo and are, indeed, promising candidates for further development.

Synthesis and evaluation of 1-amino-6-halo-ß-carbolines as antimalarial and antiprion agents.

Malaria is one of the world's most devastating parasitic diseases, causing almost one million deaths each year. Growing resistance to classical antimalarial drugs, such as chloroquine, necessitates the discovery of new therapeutic agents for successful control of this global disease. Here, we report the synthesis of some 6-halo-ß-carbolines as analogues of the potent antimalarial natural product, manzamine A, retaining its heteroaromatic core whilst providing compounds with much improved synthetic accessibility. Two compounds displayed superior activity to chloroquine itself against a resistant Plasmodium falciparum strain, identifying them as promising leads for future development. Furthermore, in line with previous reports of similarities in antimalarial and antiprion effects of aminoaryl-based antimalarial agents, the 1-amino-ß-carboline libraries were also found to possess significant bioactivity against a prion-infected cell line.

Discovery of 6-substituted indole-3-glyoxylamides as lead antiprion agents with enhanced cell line activity, improved microsomal stability and low toxicity.

A series of highly potent indole-3-glyoxylamide based antiprion agents was previously characterized, focusing on optimization of structure-activity relationship (SAR) at positions 1-3 of the indole system. New libraries interrogating the SAR at indole C-4 to C-7 now demonstrate that introducing electron-withdrawing substituents at C-6 may improve biological activity by up to an order of magnitude, and additionally confer higher metabolic stability. For the present screening libraries, both the degree of potency and trends in SAR were consistent across two cell line models of prion disease, and the large majority of compounds showed no evidence of toxic effects in zebrafish. The foregoing observations thus make the indole-3-glyoxylamides an attractive lead series for continuing development as potential therapeutic agents against prion disease.

2,4-diarylthiazole antiprion compounds as a novel structural class of antimalarial leads.

A significant intersection between antimalarial and antiprion activity is well established for certain compound classes, specifically for polycyclic antimalarial agents bearing basic nitrogen-containing sidechains (e.g., chloroquine, quinacrine, mefloquine). Screening a recently reported set of antiprion compounds with such sidechains showed these 2,4-diarylthiazole based structures also possess significant antimalarial activity. Of particular note, all but one of the compounds displayed activity against a chloroquine-resistant Plasmodium falciparum strain, identifying them as interesting leads for further development in this context. In addition, three new members of the series showed superior antiprion activity compared to the earlier-reported compounds.

Structure-activity relationship refinement and further assessment of indole-3-glyoxylamides as a lead series against prion disease.

Structure-activity relationships within the indole-3-glyoxylamide series of antiprion agents have been explored further, resulting in discovery of several new compounds demonstrating excellent activity in a cell line model of prion disease (EC50 <10 nM). After examining a range of substituents at the para-position of the N-phenylglyoxylamide moiety, five-membered heterocycles containing at least two heteroatoms were found to be optimal for the antiprion effect. A number of modifications were made to probe the importance of the glyoxylamide substructure, although none were well tolerated. The most potent compounds did, however, prove largely stable towards microsomal metabolism, and the most active library member cured scrapie-infected cells indefinitely on administration of a single treatment. The present results thereby confirm the indole-3-glyoxylamides as a promising lead series for continuing in vitro and in vivo evaluation against prion disease.

Improved 2,4-diarylthiazole-based antiprion agents: switching the sense of the amide group at C5 leads to an increase in potency.

Amide derivatives of 2,4-diarylthiazole-5-carboxylic acids were synthesised and tested for efficacy in a cell line model of prion disease. A number of compounds demonstrating antiprion activity were thereby identified from the screening libraries, showing improved potency and reproducibility of results relative to amide derivatives of the related 2,4-diphenyl-5-aminothiazole, which have been documented previously. Thus, 'switching' the sense of the amide bond at thiazole C5 revealed a more promising lead series of potential prion disease therapeutics. Furthermore, 3,5-diaryl-1,2,4-thiadiazoles isolated as by-products during library synthesis provided a handful of additional examples possessing an antiprion effect, thereby augmenting the set of newly identified active compounds. Evaluation of binding to cellular prion protein (PrP(C)) showed only weak affinities at best, suggesting that the newly identified antiprion agents do not mediate their biological effect through direct interaction with PrP(C).

Design, synthesis, and structure-activity relationship of indole-3-glyoxylamide libraries possessing highly potent activity in a cell line model of prion disease.

Transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs) are a family of invariably fatal neurodegenerative disorders for which no effective curative therapy currently exists. We report here the synthesis of a library of indole-3-glyoxylamides and their evaluation as potential antiprion agents. A number of compounds demonstrated submicromolar activity in a cell line model of prion disease together with a defined structure-activity relationship, permitting the design of more potent compounds that effected clearance of scrapie in the low nanomolar range. Thus, the indole-3-glyoxylamides described herein constitute ideal candidates to progress to further development as potential therapeutics for the family of human prion disorders.