Synthesis of novel 5-(aroylhydrazinocarbonyl)escitalopram as cholinesterase inhibitors.

A novel series of 5-(aroylhydrazinocarbonyl)escitalopram (58-84) have been designed, synthesized and tested for their inhibitory potential against cholinesterases. 3-Chlorobenzoyl- (71) was found to be the most potent compound of this series having IC 1.80 ± 0.11 μM for acetylcholinesterase (AChE) inhibition. For the butyrylcholinesterase (BChE) inhibition, 2-bromobenzoyl- (76) was the most active compound of the series with IC 2.11 ± 0.31 μM. Structure-activity relationship illustrated that mild electron donating groups enhanced enzyme inhibition while electron withdrawing groups reduced the inhibition except o-NO. However, size and position of the substituents affected enzyme inhibitions. . In docking study of AChE, the ligands 71, 72 and 76 showed the scores of 5874, 5756 and 5666 and ACE of -64.92,-203.25 and -140.29 kcal/mol, respectively. In case of BChE, ligands 71, 76 and 81 depicted high scores 6016, 6150 and 5994 with ACE values -170.91, -256.84 and -235.97 kcal/mol, respectively.