excellent selectivity profiles over both the three other HRs as well as butyrylcholinesterase (BChE) shows high and balanced in vitro affinities at both H3R and AChE with IC50 of 33.9nM and hH3R antagonism with Ki of 76.2nM, respectively
Title: The dual-acting AChE inhibitor and H3 receptor antagonist UW-MD-72 reverses amnesia induced by scopolamine or dizocilpine in passive avoidance paradigm in rats Sadek B, Khan N, Darras FH, Pockes S, Decker M Ref: Physiol Behav, 165:383, 2016 : PubMed
Both the acetylcholine esterase (AChE) and the histamine H3 receptor (H3R) are involved in the metabolism and modulation of acetylcholine release and numerous other centrally acting neurotransmitters. Hence, dual-active AChE inhibitors (AChEIs) and H3R antagonists hold potential to treat cognitive disorders like Alzheimer's disease (AD). The novel dual-acting AChEI and H3R antagonist 7-(3-(piperidin-1-yl)propoxy)-2,3-dihydropyrrolo[2,1-b]quinazolin-9(1H)-one (UW-MD-72) shows excellent selectivity profiles over the AChE's isoenzyme butyrylcholinesterase (BChE) as well as high and balanced in-vitro affinities at both AChE and hH3R with IC50 of 5.4muM on hAChE and hH3R antagonism with Ki of 2.54muM, respectively. In the current study, the effects of UW-MD-72 (1.25, 2.5, and 5mg/kg, i.p.) on memory deficits induced by the muscarinic cholinergic antagonist scopolamine (SCO) and the non-competitive N-methyl-d-aspartate (NMDA) antagonist dizocilpine (DIZ) were investigated in a step-through type passive avoidance paradigm in adult male rats applying donepezil (DOZ) and pitolisant (PIT) as reference drugs. The results observed show that SCO (2mg/kg, i.p.) and DIZ (0.1mg/kg, i.p.) significantly impaired learning and memory in rats. However, acute systemic administration of UW-MD-72 significantly ameliorated the SCO- and DIZ-induced amnesic effects. Furthermore, the ameliorating activity of UW-MD-72 (1.25mg/kg, i.p.) in DIZ-induced amnesia was partly reversed when rats were pretreated with the centrally-acting H2R antagonist zolantidine (ZOL, 10mg/kg, i.p.), but not with the CNS penetrant H1R antagonist pyrilamine (PYR, 10mg/kg, i.p.). Moreover, ameliorative effect of UW-MD-72 (1.25mg/kg, i.p.) in DIZ-induced amnesia was strongly reversed when rats were pretreated with a combination of ZOL (10mg/kg, i.p.) and SCO (1.0mg/kg, i.p.), indicating that these memory enhancing effects were, in addition to other neural circuits, observed through histaminergic H2R as well as muscarinic cholinergic neurotransmission. These results demonstrate the ameliorative effects of UW-MD-72 in two in-vivo memory models and provide evidence for the potential of dual-acting AChEI and H3R antagonists to treat cognitive disorders.
        
Title: The dual-acting H3 receptor antagonist and AChE inhibitor UW-MD-71 dose-dependently enhances memory retrieval and reverses dizocilpine-induced memory impairment in rats Khan N, Saad A, Nurulain SM, Darras FH, Decker M, Sadek B Ref: Behavioural Brain Research, 297:155, 2015 : PubMed
Both the histamine H3 receptor (H3R) and acetylcholine esterase (AChE) are involved in the regulation of release and metabolism of acetylcholine and several other central neurotransmitters. Therefore, dual-active H3R antagonists and AChE inhibitors (AChEIs) have shown in several studies to hold promise to treat cognitive disorders like Alzheimer's disease (AD). The novel dual-acting H3R antagonist and AChEI 7-(3-(piperidin-1-yl)propoxy)-1,2,3,9-tetrahydropyrrolo[2,1-b]quinazoline (UW-MD-71) with excellent selectivity profiles over both the three other HRs as well as the AChE's isoenzyme butyrylcholinesterase (BChE) shows high and balanced in vitro affinities at both H3R and AChE with IC50 of 33.9nM and hH3R antagonism with Ki of 76.2nM, respectively. In the present study, the effects of UW-MD-71 (1.25-5mg/kg, i.p.) on acquisition, consolidation, and retrieval in a one-trial inhibitory avoidance task in male rats were investigated applying donepezil (DOZ) and pitolisant (PIT) as reference drugs. Furthermore, the effects of UW-MD-71 on memory deficits induced by the non-competitive N-methyl-d-aspartate (NMDA) antagonist dizocilpine (DIZ) were tested. Our results indicate that administration of UW-MD-71 before the test session dose-dependently increased performance and enhanced procognitive effect on retrieval. However neither pre- nor post-training acute systemic administration of UW-MD-71 facilitated acquisition or consolidation. More importantly, UW-MD-71 (2.5mg/kg, i.p.) ameliorated the DIZ-induced amnesic effects. Furthermore, the procognitive activity of UW-MD-71 in retrieval was completely reversed and partly abrogated in DIZ-induced amnesia when rats were pretreated with the centrally-acting H2R antagonist zolantidine (ZOL), but not with the CNS penetrant H1R antagonist pyrilamine (PYR). These results demonstrate the procognitive effects of UW-MD-71 in two in vivo memory models, and are to our knowledge the first demonstration in vivo that a potent dual-acting H3R antagonist and AChEI is effective in improving retrieval processes in the one-trial inhibitory avoidance task and provide evidence to such compounds to treat cognitive disorders.
Combination of AChE inhibiting and histamine H3 receptor antagonizing properties in a single molecule might show synergistic effects to improve cognitive deficits in Alzheimer's disease, since both pharmacological actions are able to enhance cholinergic neurotransmission in the cortex. However, whereas AChE inhibitors prevent hydrolysis of acetylcholine also peripherally, histamine H3 antagonists will raise acetylcholine levels mostly in the brain due to predominant occurrence of the receptor in the central nervous system. In this work, we designed and synthesized two novel classes of tri- and tetracyclic nitrogen-bridgehead compounds acting as dual AChE inhibitors and histamine H3 antagonists by combining the nitrogen-bridgehead moiety of novel AChE inhibitors with a second N-basic fragment based on the piperidinylpropoxy pharmacophore with different spacer lengths. Intensive structure-activity relationships (SARs) with regard to both biological targets led to compound 41 which showed balanced affinities as hAChE inhibitor with IC50 = 33.9 nM, and hH3R antagonism with Ki = 76.2 nM with greater than 200-fold selectivity over the other histamine receptor subtypes. Molecular docking studies were performed to explain the potent AChE inhibition of the target compounds and molecular dynamics studies to explain high affinity at the hH3R.