Dihydropyrimidinone-derived selenoesters efficacy and safety in an in vivo model of Aβ aggregation

In a previous in vitro study, dihydropyrimidinone-derived selenoesteres demonstrated antioxidant properties, metal chelators and inhibitory acetylcholinesterase (AChE) activity, making these compounds promising candidates for Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) treatment. However, these effects have yet to be demonstrated in an in vivo animal model; therefore, this study aimed to evaluate the safety and efficacy of eight selenoester compounds in a Caenorhabditis elegans model using transgenic strains for amyloid-beta peptide (Aβ) aggregation. The L1 stage worms were acutely exposed (30 min) to the compounds at concentrations ranging from 5 to 200 μM and after 48 h the maintenance temperature was increased to 25 ° C for Aβ expression and aggregation. After 48 h, several parameters related to phenotypic manifestations of Aβ toxicity and mechanistic elucidation were analyzed. At the concentrations tested no significant toxicity of the compounds was found. The selenoester compound FA90 significantly reduced the rate of paralyzed worms and increased the number of swimming movements compared to the untreated worms. In addition, FA90 and FA130 improved egg-laying induced by levamisole and positively modulated HSP-6 and HSP-4 expression, thereby increasing reticular and mitochondrial protein folding response in C. elegans, which could attenuate Aβ aggregation in early exposure. Therefore, our initial screening using an alternative model demonstrated that FA90, among the eight selenoesters evaluated, was the most promising compound for AD evaluation screening in more complex animals.