Abstract:
Piperine is a major alkaloid from seeds of black pepper (Piper nigrum L.),
possess diverse biological properties such as anti-inflammatory,anti-oxidant, antimicrobial, and neuroprotective activities. This natural compound has gained the wide
attention in the medical community. This work was aimed to modify the piperine
structure to improve the efficacy for the treatment of Alzheimer's disease. The thesis
was divided into two parts, the first part, a novel series of piperine amide analogues
were designed and synthesized from piperine via aminolysis reaction to obtain the
new 29 analogues in moderate to excellent yields. In the second part, novel 1,2,3-
triazole piperine analogues were designed and synthesized by performing a key step
click reaction through one-pot two-step to obtain new 25 analogues in low to
excellent yields. All synthetic compounds were investigated for their antioxidant,
acetylcholinesterase (AChE), and butyrylcholinesterase (BuChE) activities. Among
the design compounds having a hydroxy group at the piperazine showed the most
potent antioxidant activity (IC50 of 0.04 ± 0.00 μM). Its activity was also superior to
that of standard ascorbic acid. Compound 7a had good anti-AChE activity with an
IC50 of 37.37 ± 0.04 µM. Furthermore, compound 3z was found to be the most potent
anti-BuChE derivative with an IC50 value of 4.60 ± 0.01µM and higher than
galantamine as a standard drug up to 8-fold. Molecular modeling and kinetic studies
showed that compounds 7a and 3z bound simultaneously to the peripheral anionic site
(PAS) and catalytic sites (CAS) of the AChE and BChE. Thus, compounds 7a and 3z
would be promising candidates as lead for further development as an anti-AChE and
anti-BuChE agent for the treatment of Alzheimer's disease.