Background: Owing to the complex nature of Alzheimer's disease, there is a renewed and growing search for multitarget non-toxic tacrines as simple, easily available drugs in order to stop the progress and development of the disease.
Results: This paper describes our preliminary results on the synthesis, in vitro biochemical evaluation and molecular modeling of isoxazolotacrines as potential drugs for the treatment of Alzheimer's disease. Novel 3-phenyl-5,6,7,8-tetrahydroisoxazolo[5,4-b]quinolin-4-amine (OC41) is a promising, 31% less toxic than tacrine in HepG2 cells, and selective reversible human butyrylcholinesterase inhibitor (IC50 = 5.08 ± 1.12 µM), also showing good drug-like properties according to the absorption, Distribution, Metabolism, Excretion, Toxicity analysis.
Conclusion: A new family of non-hepatotoxic permeable tacrine analogs, showing selective butyrylcholinesterase inhibition, have been discovered for the potential treatment of Alzheimer's disease.