With the lack of available drugs able to prevent the progression of Alzheimer’s disease (AD), the discovery of new neuroprotective treatments able to rescue neurons from cell injury is presently a matter of extreme importance and urgency. Here, we were inspired by the widely reported potential of natural flavonoids to build a library of novel flavones, chromen-4-ones and their C-glucosyl derivatives, and to explore their ability as neuroprotective agents with suitable pharmacokinetic profiles. All compounds were firstly evaluated in a parallel artificial membrane permeability assay (PAMPA) to assess their effective permeability across biological membranes, namely the blood-brain barrier (BBB). With this test, we aimed not only at assessing if our candidates would be well-distributed, but also at rationalizing the influence of the sugar moiety on the physicochemical properties. To complement our analysis, logD7.4 was determined. From all screened compounds, the p-morpholinyl flavones stood out for their ability to fully rescue SH-SY5Y human neuroblastoma cells against both H2O2- and Aβ1-42-induced cell death. Cholinesterase inhibition was also evaluated, and modest inhibitory activities were found. This work highlights the potential of C-glucosylflavones as neuroprotective agents, and presents the p-morpholinyl C-glucosylflavone 37, which did not show any cytotoxicity towards HepG2 and Caco-2 cells at 100 μM, as a new lead structure for further development against AD.
由于缺乏能够阻止阿尔茨海默病(AD)进展的药物,发现能够拯救神经元免受细胞损伤的新型神经保护治疗方法目前是极其重要和紧迫的问题。在这里,我们受到自然黄酮类化合物被广泛报道的潜力的启发,建立了一个新型黄酮类化合物、色苷-4-酮及其C-葡萄糖苷衍生物的库,并探索它们作为具有适当药代动力学特性的神经保护剂的能力。所有化合物首先在平行人工膜渗透性测定(PAMPA)中进行评估,以评估它们在生物膜上的有效渗透性,即血脑屏障(BBB)。通过这个测试,我们不仅旨在评估我们的候选者是否分布良好,还要理性地分析糖基对物理化学性质的影响。为了补充我们的分析,还确定了logD7.4。在所有筛选的化合物中,对p-吗啉基黄酮类化合物的能力完全挽救了SH-SY5Y人类神经母细胞瘤细胞免受H2O2和Aβ1-42诱导的细胞死亡。还评估了胆碱酯酶抑制作用,并发现了适度的抑制活性。这项工作突出了C-葡萄糖苷黄酮类化合物作为神经保护剂的潜力,并提出了p-吗啉基C-葡萄糖苷黄酮37,它在100μM时对HepG2和Caco-2细胞没有显示任何细胞毒性,作为进一步针对AD的开发的新的引导结构。