6918
V. Tell et al. / Bioorg. Med. Chem. Lett. 22 (2012) 6914–6918
23. Krug, M.; Voigt, B.; Baumert, C.; Lüpken, R.; Hilgeroth, A. Eur. J. Med. Chem.
2010, 45, 2683.
phosphorylated amino acids serine 202 and threonine 205 as
shown in Figure 3.
24. Representing procedure for the methylation of compounds
5 and 6: 3,6-
Main reductions of the cellular tau protein amino acid phos-
phorylation of both serine 202 and threonine 205 were observed
at the lowest concentrations. Thus a first proof-of-concept could
be given for effective cellular activities of reducing tau protein
phosphorylation by the AD relevant protein kinases CDK5/p25
und GSK-3b.
Finally, we succeeded in a lead optimization with the discovery
of nanomolar active CDK1, CDK5/p25 and GSK-3b inhibitors of the
3,6-dihydroxy-1-aza-9-oxafluorene type 6 and 14. We demon-
strated nontoxic properties of the selective derivative 6.
Thus, first multikinase inhibitors for a perspective AD multitar-
geted therapy were found and will be investigated in further pre-
clinically directed studies. Moreover, our selective inhibitors will
help to understand the effect of tau phosphorylation on AD
progression.
dimethoxy-4-phenylbenzo[4,5]furo[2,3-b]pyridine (7). Compound 5 (0.010 g,
0.036 mmol) was dissolved in dried THF (1 mL) under argon atmosphere. The
solution was cooled down to 0 °C in an ice bath. Then a 14-molar excess of
sodium hydride (0.012 g, 0.5 mmol) in paraffin oil (60%) was added. After
stirring for 15 min the suspension was warmed-up to rt and stirring continued.
Then a 6-molar excess of methyl iodide (0.015 g, 0.11 mmol) with reference to
both hydroxy functions was added. After stirring for 9 h at rt the reaction
mixture was poured into ice water (2 mL) and extracted with chloroform (10/
10/5/5 mL) for four times. After drying over sodium sulfate the solvent was
removed in vacuum and the remaining oil was purified by column
chromatography over silica gel using an eluent mixture of cyclohexane and
ethyl acetate (60/40). The collected fractions were evaporated to dryness and
the residual oil was dissolved in ethyl ether from which 7 cyrstallized. Yield
0.006 g (54%); mp 143–145 °C; IR
m = 2927, 2836, 1587, 1477, 1435, 1272,
1189, 1089, 1033 cmꢀ1 1H NMR (CDCl3) d = 8.17 (s, 1H), 7.59–7.51 (m, 5H),
;
7.47 (d, J = 9.0 Hz, 1H), 7.02 (dd, J = 9.0, 2.7 Hz, 1H), 6.68 (d, J = 2.7 Hz, 1H), 3.88
(s, 3H), 3,63 (s, 3H); m/z (ESI) 306 (M+H+). Elemental Anal. Calcd. (%) for
C
19H15NO3: C, 74.74; H, 4.95; N 4.59. Found: C, 74.56; H, 4.68; N 4.22.
25. Procedure for the formation of the 3-benzyloxy-4-
phenylnaphtho[10,20:4,5]furo[2,3-b]pyridine-6-ol (13). 0.85 g of the N-acetyl
1,4-dihydropyridine 10 (2.8 mmol)23 and 0.53 g of the naphthoquinone
(3.4 mmol) were dissolved in a minimum volume of dried dioxane. Then a
mixture of ten parts of dried dioxane and one part of perchloric acid (70%) were
added reaching a final solution reaction volume of 75 mL. After 24 h of stirring
at rt the added naphthoquinone partly disappeared according to tlc analysis of
the reaction mixture and additional 0.17 g of naphthoquinone (1.1 mmol) were
added. The addition of portions of the naphthoquinone continued until no
more tlc-detectable tetrahydro derivative 11 was present in the reaction
mixture. Then ice water was added (15 mL) and the pH of the solution was
adjusted to pH = 9 using a sodium hydroxide solution (1 M). Then the reaction
mixture was extracted four times with each 50 mL of chloroform. The organic
layers were unified and dried over sodium sulfate. After filtration and
evaporation the remaining oil was purified by column chromatography over
silica gel using an eluent mixture of cyclohexane / ethyl acetate (80/20). The
collected compound-containing fractions were evaporated yielding compound
Acknowledgment
Financial support of the work was given from the AFI (Alzhei-
mer Forschung Initiative e.V.) to Max Holzer, Lydia Herrmann
and Andreas Hilgeroth and from the DFG (German Research Foun-
dation) to Volkmar Tell, Max Holzer and Andreas Hilgeroth.
References and notes
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3. McShane, R.; Areo Sasastre, A.; Minakaran, N. Cochrane Database Syst. Rev. 2006,
19, CD003154.
13 as a brownish powder. Yield 0.18 g (15%); mp 219–222 °C; IR (KBr)
m = 3170,
3056, 3028, 2982, 2917, 1596, 1583, 1374, 1260, 1228 cmꢀ1 1H NMR (DMSO-
;
d6) d = 10.06 (s, 1H), 8.36 (s, 1H), 8.30 (d, J = 8.3 Hz, 1H), 8.21 (d, J = 8.3 Hz, 1H),
7.71 (t, J = 8.3 Hz, 2H), 7.63–7.59 (m, 5H), 7.32–7.28 (m, 5H), 6.63 (s, 1H), 5.20
(s, 2H); m/z (ESI) 418 [M+H+]. Elemental Anal. Calcd. (%) for C28H19NO3: C,
80.49; H, 4.59; N 3.36. Found: C, 80.13; H, 4.25; N 2.99.
4. Selkoe, D. J. Annu. Rev. Cell. Biol. 1994, 10, 373.
5. Vetrivel, K. S.; Thinakran, G. Neurology 2006, 66, S69.
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K. D.; Paudel, H. K. J. Biol. Chem. 2002, 277, 11933.
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1073.
10. Francotte, P.; Graindorge, E.; Boverie, S.; de Tullio, P.; Pirotte, B. Curr. Med.
Chem. 2004, 11, 1757.
26. Spectroscopical data of 4-phenylnaphtho[10,20:4,5]furo[2,3-b]pyridine-3,6-diol
(14): mp 258–260 °C; IR (KBr)
m
= 3337, 2977, 1640, 1599, 1582, 1444, 1369,
1256, 1212, 1172, 1070, 1037, 1028 cmꢀ1
;
1H NMR (acetone-d6) d = 9.04 (s,
1H), 8.49 (s, 1H), 8.36 (d, J = 8.3 Hz, 1H), 8.33 (d, J = 8.3 Hz, 1H), 8.16 (s, 1H),
7.74–7.70 (m, 1H), 7.67–7.57 (m, 6H), 6.71 (s, 1H); m/z (ESI) 328 [M+H].
Elemental Anal. Calcd. (%) for C21H13NO3: C, 77.05.49; H, 4.00; N 4.28. Found: C,
76.85; H, 4.09; N 4.22.
27. Voigt, B.; Meijer, L.; Lozach, O.; Schächtele, C.; Totzke, F.; Hilgeroth, A. Bioorg.
Med. Chem. Lett. 2005, 15, 823.
28. LDH-assay was performed according to the manufacturer´s recommendations
11. Wollen, K. A. Altern. Med. Rev. 2010, 15, 223.
12. Ethell, D. W. Neuroscientist 2010, 16, 614.
(Roche Diagnostics) in triplicate. 50 lL Medium was complemented with 50 lL
13. Kramp, P.; Herrling, P. Neurodegener. Dis. 2010, 8, 44.
14. Bolognesi, M. L.; Matera, R.; Minarini, A.; Rosini, M.; Melchiorre, C. Curr. Opin.
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Minarini, A.; Rosini, M.; Hrelia, P.; Andrisano, V.; Melchiorre, C. Bioorg. Med.
Chem. Lett. 2011, 21, 2655.
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Martinez, A. Bioorg. Med. Chem. 2008, 16, 495.
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reagent mixture and absorbance values were measured at 492 nm using a HT3
microtiter plate reader after 20 min. MTT was added in triplicate to cells to a
final concentration of 1 mg/mL and cells were incubated for 2 h. After
incubation cell culture medium with MTT was removed, 200
l
L DMSO and
´
25
lL Soerensens glycine buffer (0.1 M Glycine, pH 10.5, 0.1 M NaCl) per well
were added and absorbance values were measured at 550 nm with the
microtiter plate reader. Absorbance values of N2A cells cultures treated with
compound 6 were compared to cells treated with 1% Triton X-100 (100% cell
death) and untreated cells.
29. Tau phosphorylation was quantified using N2A mouse neuroblastoma cells
stably transfected with an 3-repeat tau expression construct. For the
incubation of N2A cells with the protein kinase inhibitor cells were
´
maintained in a 96-well plate in DMEM/HAMs F-12 (pH 7.4) supplemented
with 5% (v/v) fetal bovine serum, 2 mM L-Glutamine, 50 g/mL gentamicin in a
5% CO2 environment at 37 °C for 24 h. Afterwards cells were maintained for
16 h in 150 L of the described media with the protein kinase inhibitor at
l
22. Representative procedure for the debenzylation of compounds
phenylbenzo[4,5]furo[2,3-b]pyridine-3,6-diol (6). Compound
5
5
and 8: 4-
(0.025 g,
l
different concentrations diluted from a stock of 25 mM in DMSO. The final
DMSO concentration in medium did not exceed 0.4% and was also included in
the control treatment group. Extracted proteins were separated by 8% SDS–
PAGE and then transferred onto PVDF membrane overnight using a tank blot
system. Immunodetection of phosphorylated tau protein was performed as
described.30
0.068 mmol)23 was dissolved in dried methanol (20 mL). Palladium on
charcoal (0.020 g, 10%) was added and the suspension was shaken under
hydrogen atmosphere at
a pressure of 2 bar for 3 h. After filtration and
evaporation to dryness the residue was purified by column chromatography
over silica gel using an eluent mixture of cyclohexane and ethyl acetate (60/
40). The collected fractions were unified, the eluent was evaporated and 5
crystallized from diethyl ether overnight in a refrigerator. Yield 0.018 g (93%);
30. Holzer, M.; Rödel, L.; Seeger, G.; Gärtner, U.; Narz, F.; Janke, C.; Heumann, R.;
Arendt, T. Neuroscience 2001, 105, 1041.
31. Krug, M.; Erlenkamp, G.; Sippl, W.; Schächtele, C.; Totzke, F.; Hilgeroth, A.
Bioorg. Med. Chem. Lett. 2010, 20, 6915.
32. Krug, M.; Wichapong, K.; Erlenkamp, G.; Sippl, W.; Schächtele, C.; Totzke, F.;
Hilgeroth, A. ChemMedChem 2011, 6, 63.
mp 214–217 °C; IR (KBr)
m ;
= 3349, 2965, 1466, 1377, 1277, 1250, 1183 cmꢀ1
1H NMR (DMSO-d6) d = 9.72 (br s, 1H), 9.29 (br s, 1H), 8.07 (s, 1H), 7.61–7.51
(m, 5H), 7.46 (d, J = 8.9 Hz, 1H), 6.89 (dd, J = 8.9, 2.6 Hz, 1H), 6.54 (d, J = 2.6 Hz,
1H); m/z (ESI) 278 (M+H+). Elemental Anal. Calcd. (%) for C17H11NO3: C, 73.64;
H, 4.00; N 5.05. Found: C, 73.38; H, 3.85; N 4.77.