Synthesis of benzimidazole–based analogs as anti alzheimer’s disease compounds and their molecular docking studies

We synthesized 10 analogs of benzimidazole-based thiosemicarbazide 1 (a–j) and 13 benzimidazole-based Schiff bases 2 (a–m), and characterized by various spectroscopic techniques and evaluated in vitro for acetylcholinesterase (AchE) and butyrylcholinesterase (BchE) inhibition activities. All the synthesized analogs showed varying degrees of acetylcholinesterase and butyrylcholinesterase inhibitory potentials in comparison to the standard drug (IC₅₀ = 0.016 and 4.5 µM. Amongst these analogs 1 (a–j), compounds 1b, 1c, and 1g having IC₅₀ values 1.30, 0.60, and 2.40 µM, respectively, showed good acetylcholinesterase inhibition when compared with the standard. These compounds also showed moderate butyrylcholinesterase inhibition having IC₅₀ values of 2.40, 1.50, and 2.40 µM, respectively. The rest of the compounds of this series also showed moderate to weak inhibition. While amongst the second series of analogs 2 (a–m), compounds 2c, 2e, and 2h having IC₅₀ values of 1.50, 0.60, and 0.90 µM, respectively, showed moderate acetylcholinesterase inhibition when compared to donepezil. Structure Aactivity Relation of both synthesized series has been carried out. The binding interactions between the synthesized analogs and the enzymes were identified through molecular docking simulations.