The restoration of acetylcholine levels in the brain by inhibition of cholinesterases is currently the most successful therapeutic strategy to treat neurodegenerative disorders. In this context, tacrine has been largely investigated as a starting scaffold for the development of promising new anticholinesterases compounds for the treatment of neurodegenerative illnesses, including Alzheimer’s disease. Here we present a series of compounds containing the tacrine nucleus connected with squaric moiety by a diaminoalkylene chain. The compounds were obtained through a simple and short synthetic route and showed high inhibitory activity against acetylcholinesterase (AChE) within nanomolar IC50 (half maximal inhibitory concentration). The molecular modelling study showed that these compounds act as dual-binding inhibitors of AChE, interacting with both catalytic active site (CAS) and peripheral anionic site (PAS) of the enzyme’s binding cavity. The investigated compounds also demonstrated outstanding selectivity for AChE than in butyrylcholinesterase (BuChE). These results evince these compounds as promising agents for the treatment of neurodegenerative disorders and a fuller synthetic scope jointly with complementary biological evaluations are currently under investigation in our laboratory.

Cholinesterase enzymes are important targets for the therapy of Alzheimer’s disease. Tacrine-based dual binding site cholinesterases inhibitors are potential disease-modifying anti-Alzheimer drug candidates. In the present work, we described the synthesis of a series of chiral homo- and heterodimers of bis(7)-tacrine connected by a heptylene chain as a spacer with the methyl substituent at the C-3 position of the alicyclic region of tacrine nucleus and/or a chlorine atom attached to the C-6. Friedländer cyclocondensation between (R) or (S) 3-methylcyclohexanone prepared from monoterpene pulegone and o-aminobenzoic acids in the presence of POCl3 afford 9-chloroacridines as intermediates, which were used to the synthesis of homo- and heterodimers. All compounds demonstrated to be potent inhibitors of acetylcholinesterase (AChE) at low nanomolar concentration and showed selectivity for AChE over butyrylcholinesterase (BuChE). Furthermore, the affinity difference between enantiomeric bis(7)-tacrine analogues series indicated some degree of stereoselectivity in the active site of AChE for chiral bis-cognitin compounds.