Rhodanine-pyridinium derivatives as a new category of cholinesterase inhibitors: Design, synthesis, in vitro and in silico enzymatic evaluations

Rhodanine-pyridinium derivatives 10a-q were designed and synthesized based on reported cholinesterase (ChE) inhibitors and evaluated as potent anti-Alzheimer's disease agents. The in vitro anti-ChE activity of the title compounds was evaluated against two main forms of this enzyme: acetylcholinesterase (AChE) and butyrylcholinesterase (BChE). The obtained in vitro results showed that all the synthesized derivatives were more potent than positive control tacrine against AChE. Moreover, most of the new synthesized compounds were more potent than tacrine against BChE. Among the synthesized compounds, compound 10p was the most potent compound against AChE and compound 10f was the most potent compound against BChE. In vitro kinetic study demonstrated that compounds 10p and 10f were competitive inhibitors against AChE and BChE, respectively. Both these compounds had a 4-CF3 substituent on phenyl ring of benzyl pyridinium moiety. Docking study on compounds 10p and 10f demonstrated that these compounds with favorable binding energies in comparison to tacrine attached to the active sites of AChE and BChE. Molecular dynamics simulations were performed on the 10p-AChE and 10f-BChE complexes to gain deeper insights into the behavior of these compounds in the active sites of target enzymes.