Discovery of Dual Inhibitors of Acetyl and Butrylcholinesterase and Antiproliferative Activity of 1,2,4-Triazole-3-thiol: Synthesis and In Silico Molecular Study

• Published in: ChemistrySelect
• Main Author: Siddiqui S.Z.; Arfan M.; Abbasi M.A.; Aziz-ur-Rehman; Shah S.A.A.; Ashraf M.; Hussain S.; Saleem R.S.Z.; Rafique R.; Khan K.M.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Wiley-Blackwell 2020
• Online Access: https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-85087042710&doi=10.1002%2fslct.201904905&partnerID=40&md5=d590998bb08f0019fbf72c99d821dd99

The aim of this current study is to discover effective acetyl and butrylcholinesterase enzyme inhibitors. A concise library of S-alkylated/arylated-4-ethyl-5-(4-methoxyphenyl)-4H-1,2,4-triazole-3-thiols 5–18 was synthesized by using a multistep reaction sequence. The compounds were characterized by using a combination of several spectroscopic techniques including FT-IR, 1H-NMR, 13C-NMR and EI-MS. All derivatives 5–18 were tested for in vitro AChE and BChE inhibitory activity. It is worth mentioning that all synthetic compounds exhibited moderate inhibition judged by the potency of action, that is inhibition in the range of 45.87 ± 0.92 - 435.15 ± 1.69 μM for AChE, and 3.27 ± 0.81 - 346.25 ± 1.36 μM for BChE. Anti-proliferative activity results suggested that the derivative with longest alkyl-chains at S-atom of the triazole moiety was most potent with 4.91% cell viability at 25 μM and 2.97% cell viability at 50 μM and showed selectivity of inhibition of BChE over AChE at the tested concentrations providing a hit for subsequent structure optimization. Lastly, the in silico studies were performed to ascertain the binding interactions of compound with the active site of enzymes. © 2020 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim