Novel tacrine-based acetylcholinesterase inhibitors as potential agents for the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease: Quinolotacrine hybrids

A new series of quinolotacrine hybrids including cyclopenta- and cyclohexa-quinolotacrine derivatives were designed, synthesized, and assessed as anti-cholinesterase (ChE) agents. The designed derivatives indicated higher inhibitory effect on the acetylcholinesterase (AChE) with IC₅₀ values of 0.285–100 µM compared to butyrylcholinesterase (BChE) with IC₅₀ values of?>?100 µM. Of these compounds, cyclohexa-quinolotacrine hybrids displayed a little better anti-AChE activity than cyclopenta-quinolotacrine hybrids. Compound 8-amino-7-(3-hydroxyphenyl)-5,7,9,10,11,12-hexahydro-6H-pyrano[2,3-b:5,6-c'] diquinolin-6-one (6m) including 3-hydroxyphenyl and cyclohexane ring moieties exhibited the best AChE inhibitory activity with IC₅₀ value of 0.285 µM. The kinetic and molecular docking studies indicated that compound 6m occupied both the catalytic anionic site (CAS) and peripheral anionic site (PAS) of AChE as a mixed inhibitor. Using neuroprotective assay against H₂O₂-induced cell death in PC12 cells, the compound 6h illustrated significant protection among the assessed compounds. In silico ADME studies estimated good drug-likeness for the designed compounds. As a result, these quinolotacrine hybrids can be very encouraging AChE inhibitors to treat Alzheimer’s disease.

Graphic abstract

A novel series of quinolotacrine hybrids were designed, synthesized, and evaluated against AChE and BChE enzymes as potential agents for the treatment of AD. The hybrids showed good to significant inhibitory activity against AChE (0.285–100 μM) compared to butyrylcholinesterase (BChE) with IC₅₀ values of?>?100 μM. Among them, compound 8-amino-7-(3-hydroxyphenyl)-5,7,9,10,11,12-hexahydro-6H-pyrano[2,3-b:5,6-c′] diquinolin-6-one (6 m) bearing 3-hydroxyphenyl moiety and cyclohexane ring exhibited the highest anti-AChE activity with IC₅₀ value of 0.285 μM. The kinetic and molecular docking studies illustrated that compound 6 m is a mixed inhibitor and binds to both the catalytic anionic site (CAS) and peripheral anionic site (PAS) of AChE.

     

Two-photon revival-collapse phenomenon in the evolution of the quadrature squeezing of the four-photon Jaynes-Cummings model

We prove that the revival-collapse phenomenon occurring in the atomic inversion of the two-photon Jaynes-Cummings model, when the mode is initially prepared in the coherent state and the atom is in the excited state, can be obtained from the evolution of the quadrature squeezing of the four-photon Jaynes-Cummings model.     

Laser pulse heating of steel surface and flexural wave analysis

Laser gas-assisted material processing finds wide application in industry. The modelling of heating, elastic response of the substrate material, and the wave analysis gives insight into the laser workpiece interaction. In the present study, laser gas-assisted heating of steel is considered. The normal component of the thermal stress is taken as the source of load for the flexural wave generation in the material. The flexural wave generated is simulated and the wave characteristics are analyzed at four locations at the workpiece surface. The numerical scheme employing a control volume approach is introduced when solving the governing equations of flow and heat transfer while finite element and spectran element methods are used when solving the stress and wave equations. It is found that the normal component of the stress is tensile. The dispersion effect of the workpiece material, interference of the reflected beam, and partial overlapping of second mode of the travelling wave enable to identify a unique pattern in the travelling wave in the substrate.     

Reaction kinetics and pathway of hydrothermal decomposition of aspartic acid

The kinetics and pathway of hydrothermal decomposition of aspartic acid were studied using a continuous‐flow tubular reactor. The reaction was carried out in the temperature range of 200–260°C and at a pressure of 20 MPa. Deamination was the primary reaction, indicated by the presence of significant amount of ammonia, fumaric acid, or maleic acid in the products. Other reaction products were pyruvic acid, malic acid, and traces of succinic and lactic acid. Traces of alanine were also detected, showing the possibility of decomposing high‐molecular weight amino acids to obtain simple amino acids such as glycine or alanine. Results on the effect of reaction parameters demonstrated that decomposition of aspartic acid is highly temperature dependent under hydrothermal conditions. For a slight temperature difference of 60°C (from 200 to 260°C), the first‐order reaction rate constants of 0.003 significantly increased to 0.231 s^?1. The activation energy was 144 kJ/mol, as calculated by the Arrhenius equation. No significant effect was exhibited by other reaction parameters such as pH and pressure. The results are useful in controlling the hydrolysis of proteinaceous materials toward high yield of aspartic acid under hydrothermal conditions. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. 39: 175–180, 2007     

Multigrid solution of the Poisson—Boltzmann equation

A multigrid method is presented for the numerical solution of the linearized Poisson–Boltzmann equation arising in molecular biophysics. The equation is discretized with the finite volume method, and the numerical solution of the discrete equations is accomplished with multiple grid techniques originally developed for twodimensional interface problems occurring in reactor physics. A detailed analysis of the resulting method is presented for several computer architectures, including comparisons to diagonally scaled CG, ICCG, vectorized ICCG and MICCG, and to SOR provided with an optimal relaxation parameter. Our results indicate that the multigrid method is superior to the preconditioned CG methods and SOR and that the advantage of multigrid grows with the problem size. © 1993 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Novel regiochemistry in the aqueous singlet oxygen ene reactions of carboxylic acid salts: a comparison of substrate structure

The singlet oxygen (¹Δ_g) photooxidations of angelic acid salt (1), tiglic acid salt (2), 2,3-dimethyl-2-butenoic acid salt (3), 3-ethoxycarbonyl-5,6-dihydro-2-methyl-4H-pyrane acid salt (4), cis-3-hexenoic acid salt (5), and trans-3-hexenoic acid salt (6) were conducted in deuterated water. The major and minor ene allylic hydroperoxide products were quantified and indicate that the allylic hydrogen geminal to the carboxylate group is preferentially abstracted in 1-4, whereas the allylic hydrogen α to the carboxylate is slightly favored for 5 and 6. We have attributed the observed regiochemistry in 1-4 to stabilizing hydrogen bonding interactions between the solvent and the perepoxide, which leads to the major ene product.     

Hyperfine structure studies of Tantalum

A narrow bandwidth ring dye laser pumped by an argon ion laser has been used to investigate the hyperfine structure of the even and odd parity levels of tantalum by optogalvanic spectroscopy in the wavelength range 5640 to 6050 Å. Seventeen transitions have been observed and eight of these have not been reported in the literature so far. These transitions involve 27 levels with 15 odd and 12 even parity configurations. The magnetic dipole hyperfine interaction constants A and the electric quadrupole interaction constants B for these levels have been computed and compared with the data available in literature. The results for the levels at 34799.71 cm^?1, 26960.46 cm^?1 and 19657.78 cm^?1 are reported for the first time.     

A model of energy transfer to noble gas atoms due to forced resonance within a continuum of plasmon excitation by intense laser pulses

We have developed and applied a model of energy transfer to noble gas atoms due to a resonance mechanism within a continuum of plasmon oscillation induced by intense laser pulses. The model is based on a generalization to 3D of the 1D many-body RPA method of Tomonaga. Total cross sections for laser energy absorption, the saturation intensities for ionization, mean energy transfer and degree of ionization of several noble gases, Xe, Kr, Ar, Ne are obtained for λ = 193 nm and λ = 1064 nm for a short Gaussian laser pulse. Probability distribution of absorption of a given number of photons in Xe is also obtained for λ = 193 nm andI ₀ = 10¹⁴ W/cm². The results are consistent with the rapid energy transfer necessary for multiple ionization at these frequencies.     

Kinetic-Spectrophotometric Determination of Trace Quantities of Thiocyanate Based on Its Landolt Effect on the Reaction of Bromate with Hydrochloric Acid1

A new method for the rapid and sensitive determination of trace quantities of thiocyanate based on its Landolt effect on the bromate-hydrochloric acid reaction was developed. The induction period of the reaction is proportional to the SCN^– concentration. The decolorization of methyl orange by the reaction products was used to monitor the reaction spectrophotometrically at 525 nm. We were able to determine thiocyanate in the range 2 × 10^–7–4 × 10^–5 M by this method. The relative standard deviation for 10 determinations of 1.5 × 10^–6 M thiocyanate ion is 0.19% and the detection limit of the method was 7.00 × 10^–8 M. The method was applied to the determination of thiocyanate in human blood serum and of saliva samples with satisfactory results.     

Neutron induced radiography in the determination of boron in drinking water

Neutron induced radiography has been applied to the determination of boron concentrations in drinking water, collected from natural springs of Reshian and Muzaffarabad areas of Azad Kashmir, Pakistan, using CR-39 etched track detectors. The technique is based upon the simultaneous irradiation with thermal neutrons of a sample of unknown concentration and a standard of known boron concentration, fixed on a track detector. The subsequent counting of alpha and ⁷Li tracks in the detector resulting from the ¹⁰B(n,)⁷Li nuclear reaction is done after chemical etching. Boron concentration in the sample is determined by comparing ⁷Li and alpha-particle track density with that of a standard of known boron concentration. Boron concentrations in drinking water samples from Muzaffarabad and Reshian area of Azad Kashmir have been found to vary from (0.054±0.001) mg/l to (0.250±0.004) mg/l with an average of (0.16±0.002) mg/l. The observed concentration of boron in drinking water has been found to be less than the provisional Maximum Acceptable Concentration level (0.4 mg//l) of WHO. The drinking water from the reported area has been found to be within safe limits as far as boron related health hazards are concerned.This revised version was published online in November 2005 with corrections to the Cover Date.