Design, synthesis and evaluation of pterostilbene β-amino alcohol derivatives as multifunctional agents for Alzheimer's disease treatment

A series of pterostilbene β-amino alcohol derivatives were designed, synthesized and evaluated as multifunctional agents for the treatment of Alzheimer's disease (AD). In vitro assays demonstrated that most of the derivatives were selective acetylacholinesterase (AChE) inhibitors with moderate multifunctional properties. Among them, compound 5f exhibited the best inhibitory activity for EeAChE (IC50 = 24.04 μM), that was better than pterostilbene under our experimental condition. In addition, compound 5f displayed reasonable antioxidant activity and could confer significant neuroprotective effect against H2O2-induced PC-12 cell injury. Moreover, 5f also showed self-induced Aβ1-42 aggregation inhibitory potency and displayed high BBB permeability in vitro. These multifunctional properties highlight 5f as a promising candidate for further studies directed to the development of novel drugs against AD.