Design, green synthesis, antioxidant activity screening, and evaluation of protective effect on cerebral ischemia reperfusion injury of novel monoenone monocarbonyl curcumin analogs

Antioxidants with high efficacy and low toxicity have the potential to treat cerebral ischemia reperfusion injury (CIRI). Dienone monocarbonyl curcumin analogs (DMCA) capable of overcoming the instability and pharmacokinetic defects of curcumin possess notable antioxidant activity but are found to be significantly toxic. In this study, a novel skeleton of the monoenone monocarbonyl curcumin analogue sAc possessing reduced toxicity and improved stability was designed on the basis of the DMCA skeleton. Moreover, 32 sAc analogs were obtained by applying a green, simple, and economical synthetic method. Multiple sAc analogs with an antioxidant protective effect in PC12 cells were screened using an H2O2-induced oxidative stress damage model, and quantitative evaluation of structure-activity relationship (QSAR) model with regression coefficient of R2 = 0.918921 was built through random forest algorithm (RF). Among these compounds, the optimally active compound sAc15 elicited a potent protective effect on cell growth of PC12 cells by effectively eliminating ROS generation in response to oxidative stress injury by activating the Nrf2/HO-1 antioxidant signaling pathway. In addition, sAc15 exhibited good protection against CIRI in the mice middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAO) model. In this paper, we provide a novel class of antioxidants and a potential compound for stroke treatment.