Lipase-catalysed synthesis of new acetylcholinesterase inhibitors: N-benzylpiperidine aminoacid derivatives Original Research Article

New acetylcholinesterase inhibitors were synthetized via a lipase-mediated regioselective amidation using Candida antarctica lipase B as a biocatalyst in the key step. The new compounds have two different structural fragments: a N-benzylpiperidine moiety to anchor the enzyme active site and a dicarboxylic aminoacid to act as a biological carrier. Some analogues of N-benzylpiperazine were also synthesised and studied but they did not display AChE inhibitor activity. A preliminary structure–activity relationship study was performed employing some computational techniques as similarity indices and electrostatic potential maps.