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Parkinson’s disease (PD) is the second most common neurodegenerative disease affecting people over age 55. Oxidative stress actively participates in the dopaminergic (DA) neuron degeneration of PD. Xyloketals are a series of natural compounds from marine mangrove fungus strain No. 2508 that have been reported to protect against neurotoxicity through their antioxidant properties. However, their protection versus 1-methyl-4-phenylpyridinium (MPP+)-induced neurotoxicity is only modest, and appropriate structural modifications are necessary to discover better candidates for treating PD. In this work, we designed and synthesized 39 novel xyloketal derivatives (1–39) in addition to the previously reported compound, xyloketal B. The neuroprotective activities of all 40 compounds were evaluated in vivo via respiratory burst assays and longevity-extending assays. During the zebrafish respiratory burst assay, compounds 1, 9, 23, 24, 36 and 39 strongly attenuated reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation at 50 μM. In the Caenorhabditis elegans longevity-extending assay, compounds 1, 8, 15, 16 and 36 significantly extended the survival rates (p < 0.005 vs. dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO)). A total of 15 compounds were tested for the treatment of Parkinson’s disease using the MPP+-induced C. elegans model, and compounds 1 and 8 exhibited the highest activities (p < 0.005 vs. MPP+). In the MPP+-induced C57BL/6 mouse PD model, 40 mg/kg of 1 and 8 protected against MPP+-induced dopaminergic neurodegeneration and increased the number of DA neurons from 53% for the MPP+ group to 78% and 74%, respectively (p < 0.001 vs. MPP+ group). Thus, these derivatives are novel candidates for the treatment of PD.

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