Rational design and synthesis of modified natural peptides from Boana pulchella (anura) as acetylcholinesterase inhibitors and antioxidants

The use of acetylcholinesterase (AChE) inhibitors, antioxidants or multitarget compounds are among the main strategies against Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Between AChE inhibitors, those targeting the peripheral anionic site (PAS) are of special interest. Here, we describe the rational design and synthesis of peptide analogs of a natural PAS-targeting sequence that we recently discovered, aiming at increasing its activity against AChE. We also tested their radical scavenging and metal chelating properties. Our design strategy was based on the position-specific, computer-aided insertion of aromatic residues. The analog named as W3 showed a 30-fold higher inhibitory activity than the original sequence and an improved antioxidant activity. W3 is the most potent modified natural peptide against Electrophorus electricus AChE ever reported with an IC 50 of 10.42 μM (± 1.02). In addition, it showed a radical scavenging activity of 47.00% ± 3.11 at 50 μM and 93.47% ± 1.53 at 400 μM. Since peptides are receiving increasing interest as drugs, we propose the W3 analog as an attractive sequence for the development of new peptide-based multitarget drugs for AD. Besides, this work sheds light on the importance of the aromatic residues in the modulation of AChE activity and their effect on the radical scavenging activity of a peptide.