Structures of human monoamine oxidase B (MAO B) in complex with safinamide and two coumarin derivatives, all sharing a common benzyloxy substituent, were determined by X-ray crystallography. These compounds competitively inhibit MAO B with Ki values in the 0.1-0.5 microM range that are 30-700-fold lower than those observed with MAO A. The inhibitors bind noncovalently to MAO B, occupying both the entrance and the substrate cavities and showing a similarly oriented benzyloxy substituent.

Many naturally occurring substances, traditionally used in popular medicines around the world, contain the coumarin moiety. Coumarin represents a privileged scaffold for medicinal chemists, because of its peculiar physicochemical features, and the versatile and easy synthetic transformation into a large variety of functionalized coumarins. As a consequence, a huge number of coumarin derivatives have been designed, synthesized, and tested to address many pharmacological targets in a selective way, e.g., selective enzyme inhibitors, and more recently, a number of selected targets (multitarget ligands) involved in multifactorial diseases, such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases. In this review an overview of the most recent synthetic pathways leading to mono- and polyfunctionalized coumarins will be presented, along with the main biological pathways of their biosynthesis and metabolic transformations. The many existing and recent reviews in the field prompted us to make some drastic selections, and therefore, the review is focused on monoamine oxidase, cholinesterase, and aromatase inhibitors, and on multitarget coumarins acting on selected targets of neurodegenerative diseases.

For this study, we used the macrocyclic antibiotic teicoplanin, a molecule consisting of an aglycone peptide "basket" with three attached carbohydrate (sugar) moieties. The sugar units were removed and the aglycone was purified. Two chiral stationary phases (CSPs) were prepared in a similar way, one with the native teicoplanin molecule and the other with the aglycone. Twenty-six compounds were evaluated on the two CSPs with seven RPLC mobile phases and two polar organic mobile phases. The compounds were 13 amino acids or structurally related compounds (including DOPA, folinic acid, etc.) and 13 other compounds (such as carnitine, bromacil, etc.). The chromatographic results are given as the retention, selectivity, and resolution factors along with the peak efficiency and the enantioselective free energy difference corresponding to the separation of the two enantiomers. The polarities of the two CSPs are similar. It is clearly established that the aglycone is responsible for the enantioseparation of amino acids. The difference in enantioselective free energy between the aglycone CSP and the teicoplanin CSP was between 0.3 and 1 kcal/mol for amino acid enantioseparations. This produced resolution factors 2-5 times higher with the aglycone CSP. Four non amino acid compounds were separated only on the teicoplanin CSP. Six and five compounds were better separated on the teicoplanin and aglycone CSPs, respectively. Although the sugar units decrease the resolution of alpha-amino acid enantiomers, they can contribute significantly to the resolution of a number of non amino acid enantiomeric pairs.

Quantitative Structure-Activity Relationships are widely acknowledged predictive methods employed, for years, in organic and medicinal chemistry. More recently, they have assumed a central role also in the context of the explorative toxicology for the protection of environment and human health. However, their real-life application has not been always enthusiastically welcomed, being often retrospectively used and, thus, of limited importance for prospective goals. The need of making more trustable predictions has thus addressed studies on the so-called Applicability Domain, which represents the chemical space from which a model is derived and where a prediction is considered to be reliable. In the present study, the authors survey a number of approaches used to build the Applicability Domain. In particular, they will focus on strategies based on: a) physico-chemical, b) structural and c) response domains. Moreover, some examples integrating different strategies will be also discussed to meet the needs of both model developers and downstream users.

A set of 17 coumarin and 2 chromone derivatives with known inhibitory activity toward monoamine oxidase (MAO) A and B were tested as acetylcholinesterase (AChE) inhibitors. All compounds inhibited AChE with values in the micromolar range (3-100 microM). A kinetic study showed that most compounds acted as noncompetitive AChE inhibitors. This finding may be of interest in the context of Alzheimer's disease because recent observations suggest that MAO and AChE inhibition might decrease beta-amyloid deposition.

Amyloid aggregation is linked to a number of neurodegenerative syndromes, the most prevalent one being Alzheimer's disease. In this pathology, the b-amyloid peptides (Ab) aggregate into oligomers, protofibrils, and fibrils and eventually into plaques, which constitute the characteristic hallmark of Alzheimer's disease. Several low-molecular-weight compounds able to impair the Ab aggregation process have been recently discovered; yet, a detailed description of their interactions with oligomers and fibrils is hitherto missing. Here, molecular dynamics simulations are used to investigate the influence of two relatively similar tricyclic, planar compounds, that is, 9, 10-anthraquinone (AQ) and anthracene (AC), on the early phase of the aggregation of the Ab heptapeptide segment H 14 QKLVFF 20 , the hydrophobic stretch that promotes the Ab self-assembly. The simulations show that AQ interferes with b-sheet formation more than AC. In particular, AQ intercalates into the b-sheet because polar interactions between the compound and the peptide backbone destabilize the interstrand hydrogen bonds, thereby favoring disorder. The thioflavin T-binding assay indicates that AQ, but not AC, sensibly reduces the amount of aggregated Ab 1-40 peptide. Taken together, the in silico and in vitro results provide evidence that structural perturbations by AQ can remarkably affect ordered oligomerization. Moreover, the simulations shed light at the atomic level on the interactions between AQ and Ab oligomers, providing useful insights for the design of small-molecule inhibitors of aggregation with therapeutic potential in Alzheimer's disease.

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In an effort to discover novel selective monoamine oxidase (MAO) B inhibitors with favorable physicochemical and pharmacokinetic profiles, 7-[(m-halogeno)benzyloxy]coumarins bearing properly selected polar substituents at position 4 were designed, synthesized, and evaluated as MAO inhibitors. Several compounds with MAO-B inhibitory activity in the nanomolar range and excellent MAO-B selectivity (selectivity index SI > 400) were identified. Structure-affinity relationships and docking simulations provided valuable insights into the enzyme-inhibitor binding interactions at position 4, which has been poorly explored. Furthermore, computational and experimental studies led to the identification and biopharmacological characterization of 7-[(3-chlorobenzyl)oxy]-4-[(methylamino)methyl]-2H-chromen-2-one methanesulfonate 22b (NW-1772) as an in vitro and in vivo potent and selective MAO-B inhibitor, with rapid blood-brain barrier penetration, short-acting and reversible inhibitory activity, slight inhibition of selected cytochrome P450s, and low in vitro toxicity. On the basis of this preliminary preclinical profile, inhibitor 22b might be viewed as a promising clinical candidate for the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases.