Design, Synthesis and Pharmacological Evaluation of New Coumarin Derivatives as Monoamine Oxidase A and B Inhibitors

With the aim to find out the structural features for the MAO inhibitory activity and selectivity, in the present communication we report the design, synthesis and pharmacological evaluation of a new series of coumarin derivatives with 4-methyl or cycloalkene or benzene ring condensed in the 3,4 position. The substituents in this new scaffold were introduced in the 5, 7 and/or 8 positions of the coumarin moiety. The synthesized compounds 1-13 were evaluated as MAO A and B inhibitors using clorgyline and selegiline, respectively, as reference inhibitors, showing, most of them, activities in the nanomolar range. Compounds 6 (IC50 = 1.18 nM) and 10 (IC50 = 1.48 nM), show higher activity than selegiline (IC50 = 19.60 nM), and high MAO-B selectivity with 100-fold and 1600-fold inhibition levels, with respect to the MAO-A isoform.