Novel vanillin derivatives: An insight into their antioxidant properties

Oxidative stress, the unbalance between the occurrence of oxygen/nitrogen reactive species (ROS and RNS) and the ability of the organism to inactivate these harmful molecules is linked with several disorders such neurodegenerative diseases, cardiovascular diseases, cancer and immune disarray. In the last decades, antioxidants have been the subject of intense research for their possible use as treatment or for prevention of these pathologies. Here we report a series of new vanillin derivatives obtained through reductive amination reaction. These derivatives showed strong antioxidant properties in different antioxidant assays, such as: DPPH, FRAP and ORAC assays. In addition, they exhibited DNA protection from oxidative damage in the presence of the radical initiator AAPH. At cellular level the most promising compound protects SH-SY5Y neuroblastoma cell line from oxidative damage induced by H2O2 (400 µM) and with a mixture rotenone/oligomycin (3 and 1 mM respectively). Furthermore, it showed a decrease in ROS formation (using DCFDA as fluorescent probe), when the cells were exposed to H2O2 (1 mM) for 30 minutes.