Synthesis of new derivatives of β-carboline-hydantoin

High-throughput screening of natural compounds and inhibition of a major therapeutic target HsGSK-3β for Alzheimer's disease using computational approaches

BACKGROUND

Alzheimer's disease is a leading neurodegenerative disease worldwide and is the 6th leading cause of death in the USA. AD is a very complex disease and the drugs available in the market cannot fully cure it. The glycogen synthase kinase 3 beta plays a major role in the hyperphosphorylation of tau protein which forms the neurofibrillary tangles which is a major hallmark of AD. In this study, we have used a series of computational approaches to find novel inhibitors against GSK-3β to reduce the TAU hyperphosphorylation.

RESULTS

We have retrieved a set of compounds (n=167,741) and screened against GSK-3β in four sequential steps. The resulting analysis of virtual screening suggested that 404 compounds show good binding affinity and can be employed for pharmacokinetic analysis. From here, we have selected 20 compounds those were good in terms of pharmacokinetic parameters. All these compounds were re-docked by using Autodock Vina followed by Autodock. Four best compounds were employed for MDS and here predicted RMSD, RMSF, Rg, hydrogen bonds, SASA, PCA, and binding-free energy. From all these analyses, we have concluded that out of 167,741 compounds, the ZINC15968620, ZINC15968622, and ZINC70707119 can act as lead compounds against HsGSK-3β to reduce the hyperphosphorylation.

CONCLUSION

The study suggested three compounds (ZINC15968620, ZINC15968622, and ZINC70707119) have great potential to be a drug candidate and can be tested using in vitro and in vivo experiments for further characterization and applications.

Fluorous and Traceless Synthesis of Substituted Indole Alkaloids

The fluorous traceless synthesis of substituted indole alkaloids is carried out first by attaching the 3-(perfluorooctyl)propanol with Boc protected L-tryptophan. The reaction of perfluoroalkyl (Rfh)-tagged tryptophan esters with various aldehydes undergoes Pictet-Spengler reaction to give cis and trans stereoisomers of tetrahydro-beta-carbolines. The nucleophilic addition of the piperidine nitrogen across various isocyanates is followed by the cyclization of ureas and simultaneous rupture of the fluorous tag to afford the hydantoin ring fused tetrahydro-beta-carbolines. All the fluorous-tag compounds are purified by solid-phase extraction (SPE) through Fluoro Flash cartridges.