Design, synthesis and bioevalucation of novel 2,3-dihydro-1H-inden-1-amine derivatives as potent and selective human monoamine oxidase B inhibitors based on rasagiline.

Parkinson's disease (PD) is associated with elevated levels of hMAO-B in the brain, and MAO-B has been recognized a successful target for developing anti-PD drugs. Herein we report rasagiline derivatives as novel potent and selective hMAO-B inhibitors. They were designed by employing fragment-based drug design strategy to link rasagiline and hydrophobic fragments, which may target a hydrophobic pocket in the entrance cavity of hMAO-B. Different linkers such as -OCH-, -SCH-, -OCHCH-, -OCHCHO-, -OCHCHCHO- were tried. A promising selective hMAO-B inhibitor D14 with similar inhibitory activity as rasagiline and improved isoform selectivity was yielded. The selectivity profile of compounds reported herein suggests that we can further develop more potent hMAO-B inhibitors with high isoform selectivity through this strategy.