Molecular modeling of (E)-1-alkyl-4(3)-[2-(1H-azolyl)vinyl]-pyridinium salts and evaluation of their behavior towards choline acetyltransferase Original Research Article

A new type of extended π-system aza-analogue of (E)-4-[2-(1-naphthylvinyl)]-1-substituted pyridinium salts (NVP+) has been designed and its inhibitory activity towards choline acetyltransferase (ChAT) has been evaluated in vitro. Among the several examples of the title quaternary salts synthesized 2 and 3, the indolylvinylpyridinium salt 2e is the only one to show a very low ChAT inhibition. The molecular modeling study is highly illustrative of their behavior towards ChAT and interaction with the recognition site. Thus, several selected cations together with the reference NVP+ compound 1a were studied at the PM3 and AM1 levels respectively. At the global minima, all the compounds are planar, which, from the electron charge distribution, shows a degree of polarization similar to the NVP+ model compound 1a. However, the fitting of all optimized structures indicated that only the indole derivative 2e showed the same aromatic fragment orientation as 1a, which allows us to define a volume that is not accessible to ligands in the enzyme and consequently to a refined model of the choline acetyltransferase recognition site.