Design, Ssynthesis, and biological evaluation of β-secretase inhibitors: An integrated study of molecular docking, dynamics, pharmacokinetics, quantum chemistry, and in-vitro analysis for Alzheimer's disease.

Present paper elicits the synthesis of a series of 2,2-dimethyl-2H-[1,3]dioxino[4,5-b]pyrrol-4(7H)-one derivatives as novel selective BACE1 inhibitors for the treatment of Alzheimer's disease (AD). A four-component, solvent-free condensation process, catalyzed by 10 mol% NiCl₂·6H₂O strategy was explored to achieve their synthesis. The structures of the synthesized compounds were ascertained using different spectroscopic techniques, including FT-IR, 1H NMR, 13C NMR, mass spectrometry, and elemental analysis. In silico molecular docking and molecular dynamics simulations suggest that these compounds exhibit strong potential as β-secretase (BACE1) inhibitors, demonstrating high interaction and binding energies compared to reference inhibitors AZD3293 and E2602. Notably, compounds 5p displayed significant inhibitory interactions, effectively suppressing the catalytic dyad (Asp A:228 and Asp A:32) of BACE1. To further validate the computational findings, in vitro BACE1 enzymatic inhibition assays were performed on the most interactive molecule 5p. Additionally, ADMET descriptors and density functional theory (DFT) calculations were employed to assess the pharmacokinetics, chemical stability, and binding affinity of the synthesized compounds. The findings from this study pave the way for future in vivo investigations to assess the reversal of Alzheimer's disease phenotypes, along with comprehensive safety and toxicity evaluations.