Exploring Facile Synthesis and Cholinesterase Inhibiting Potential of Heteroaryl Substituted Imidazole Derivatives for the Treatment of Alzheimer’s Disease

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative disorder and cholinesterase (ChE) enzymes are considered as crucial targets for the treatment of AD. Herein, a series of heteroaryl substituted imidazole derivatives (5a-5x) was prepared using amino acid catalyzed, one-pot facile synthetic approach. In this context, the catalytic potentials of different amino acids were investigated and 15 mol% of glutamic acid was identified as the most suitable catalyst to obtain the target products in good yields up to 90 %. These structurally exciting heterocyclic hybrids were screened against acetylcholinesterase (AChE) and butyrylcholinesterase (BChE) enzymes. This series displayed moderate to excellent inhibitory potential against AChE with IC50 values > 25 µM and the most active compound was 3-(4-(1-(3,5-dimethylphenyl)-4,5-diphenyl-1H-imidazol-2-yl)-1-phenyl-1H-pyrazol-3-yl)–2H-chromen-2-one (5x) with IC50 value of 25.83 ± 0.25 µM.This inhibitory potential was attributed to hydrophobicity as the major contributory factor. The most potent compound against BChE was 1,3-diphenyl-4-(1,4,5-triphenyl-1H-imidazol-2-yl)-1H-pyrazole (5a) with IC50 value of 0.35 ± 0.02 µM followed by other potent compounds 5p, 5 m, 5x, 5b, 5c, 5e and 5f with IC50 values < 10 µM. SAR studies further revealed that coumarinyl moiety at R1 position in the imidazolylpyrazole skeleton significantly improved the overall cholinesterase inhibitory potential. However, a simple phenyl ring attached at this R1 site was highly effective and selective for BChE inhibition (5a) over AChE. Docking data also demonstrated the interaction of 5x and AChE with a docking score of 7564 and atomic contact energy (ACE) value of –291.90 kcal/mol whereas docking score for 5a against BChE was 7096 with ACE value of –332.95 kcal/mol. The results altogether suggest further investigations of the heteroaryl substituted imidazole core skeleton in search of potential leads towards designing of new anti-cholinesterase drugs for the treatment of AD.