title: Anti-cholinergic alkaloids as potential therapeutic agents for Alzheimer's disease: an in silico approach.
abstract: Alzheimer's disease (AD), a progressive neurodegenerative disorder with many cognitive and neuropsychiatric symptoms is biochemically characterized by a significant decrease in the brain neurotransmitter acetylcholine (ACh). Plant-derived metabolites, including alkaloids have been reported to possess neuroprotective properties and are considered to be safe, thus have potential for developing effective therapeutic molecules for neurological disorders, such as AD. Therefore, in the present study, thirteen plant-derived alkaloids, namely pleiocarpine, kopsinine, pleiocarpamine (from Pleiocarpa mutica, family: Annonaceae), oliveroline, noroliveroline, liridonine, isooncodine, polyfothine, darienine (from Polyalthia longifolia, family: Apocynaceae) and eburnamine, eburnamonine, eburnamenine and geissoschizol (from Hunteria zeylanica, family: Apocynaceae) were analyzed for their anti-cholinergic action through docking with acetylcholinesterase (AChE) as target. Among the alkaloids, pleiocarpine showed promising anti-cholinergic potential, while its amino derivative showed about six-fold higher anti-cholinergic potential than pleiocarpine. Pleiocarpine and its amino derivative were found to be better inhibitors of AChE, as compared to commonly used drugs tacrine (brand name: Cognex) and rivastigmine (brand name: Exelon), suggesting development of these molecules as potential therapeutics in future.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biochemistry, University of Lucknow, India.
authors.forename: Huma
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Naaz
authors.forename: Swati
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Singh
authors.forename: Veda P
authors.initials: VP
authors.lastname: Pandey
authors.forename: Priyanka
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Singh
authors.forename: Upendra N
authors.initials: UN
authors.lastname: Dwivedi
mesh_terms: D000470:Alkaloids / Q000737:chemistry / Q000494:pharmacology; D000544:Alzheimer Disease / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000378:metabolism*; D020134:Catalytic Domain; D002626:Chemistry, Pharmaceutical / Q000379:methods; D018680:Cholinergic Antagonists / Q000494:pharmacology*; D002800:Cholinesterase Inhibitors / Q000494:pharmacology; D018360:Crystallography, X-Ray / Q000379:methods; D030562:Databases, Protein; D015195:Drug Design; D006801:Humans; D006860:Hydrogen Bonding; D008024:Ligands; D008956:Models, Chemical; D008958:Models, Molecular; D008517:Phytotherapy; D011485:Protein Binding; D011487:Protein Conformation; D021281:Quantitative Structure-Activity Relationship
chemical_list: D000470:Alkaloids; D018680:Cholinergic Antagonists; D002800:Cholinesterase Inhibitors; D008024:Ligands; C114765:pleiocarpamine