Molecules (May 2021)

Design, Synthesis, and Evaluation of Dihydropyranopyrazole Derivatives as Novel PDE2 Inhibitors for the Treatment of Alzheimer’s Disease

  • Yan Zhou,
  • Jinjian Li,
  • Han Yuan,
  • Rui Su,
  • Yue Huang,
  • Yiyou Huang,
  • Zhe Li,
  • Yinuo Wu,
  • Haibin Luo,
  • Chen Zhang,
  • Ling Huang

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3390/molecules26103034
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 26, no. 10
p. 3034

Abstract

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Phosphodiesterase 2 (PDE2) has been regarded as a novel target for the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease (AD). In this study, we obtained (R)-LZ77 as a hit compound with moderate PDE2 inhibitory activity (IC50 = 261.3 nM) using a high-throughput virtual screening method based on molecular dynamics. Then, we designed and synthesized 28 dihydropyranopyrazole derivatives as PDE2 inhibitors. Among them, compound (+)-11h was the most potent PDE2 inhibitor, with an IC50 value of 41.5 nM. The molecular docking of PDE2-(+)-11h reveals that the 4-(trifluoromethyl)benzyl)oxyl side chain of the compound enters the H-pocket and forms strong hydrophobic interactions with L770/L809/F862, which improves inhibitory activity. The above results may provide insight for further structural optimization of highly potent PDE2 inhibitors and may lay the foundation for their use in the treatment of AD.

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