Kinase irregularity has been correlated with several complex neurodegenerative tauopathies. Development of selective inhibitors of these kinases might afford promising anti-tauopathy therapies. While DAPK1 inhibitors halt the formation of tau aggregates and counteract neuronal death, CSF1R inhibitors could alleviate the tauopathies-associated neuroinflammation. Herein, we report the design, synthesis, biological evaluation, mechanistic study, and molecular docking study of novel CSF1R/DAPK1 dual inhibitors as multifunctional molecules inhibiting the formation of tau aggregates and neuroinflammation. Compound 3l, the most potent DAPK1 inhibitor in the in vitro kinase assay (IC50 = 1.25 μM) was the most effective tau aggregates formation inhibitor in the cellular assay (IC50 = 5.0 μM). Also, compound 3l elicited potent inhibition of CSF1R in the in vitro kinase assay (IC50 = 0.15 μM) and promising inhibition of nitric oxide production in LPS-induced BV-2 cells (55% inhibition at 10 μM concentration). Kinase profiling and hERG binding assay anticipated the absence of off-target toxicities while the PAMPA-BBB assay predicted potentially high BBB permeability. The mechanistic study and selectivity profile suggest compound 3l as a non-ATP-competitive DAPK1 inhibitor and an ATP-competitive CSF1R inhibitor while the in silico calculations illustrated binding of compound 3l to the substrate-binding site of DAPK1. Hence, compound 3l might act as a protein-protein interaction inhibitor by hindering DAPK1 kinase reaction through preventing the binding of DAPK1 substrates.
Keywords: CSF1R; DAPK1; Multifunctional molecules; Neuroinflammation; Tauopathies.
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