Abstract
Protein misfolding results in a plethora of known diseases such as Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, Huntington's disease, transthyretin-related amyloidosis, type 2 diabetes, Lewy body dementia, and spongiform encephalopathy. To provide a diverse portfolio of therapeutic small molecules with the ability to reduce protein misfolding, we evaluated a set of 13 compounds: 4-(benzo[d]thiazol-2-yl)aniline (BTA) and its derivatives containing urea (1), thiourea (2), sulfonamide (3), triazole (4), and triazine (5) linker. In addition, we explored small modifications on a very potent antioligomer 5-nitro-1,2-benzothiazol-3-amine (5-NBA) (compounds 6-13). This study aims to define the activity of BTA and its derivatives on a variety of prone-to-aggregate proteins such as transthyretin (TTR81-127, TTR101-125), α-synuclein (α-syn), and tau isoform 2N4R (tau 2N4R) through various biophysical methods. Thioflavin T (ThT) fluorescence assay was used to monitor fibril formation of the previously mentioned proteins after treatment with BTA and its derivatives. Antifibrillary activity was confirmed using transmission electron microscopy (TEM). Photoreactive cross-linking assay (PICUP) was utilized to detect antioligomer activity and lead to the identification of 5-NBA (at low micromolar concentration) and compound 13 (at high concentration) as the most promising in reducing oligomerization. 5-NBA and not BTA inhibited the inclusion formation based on the cell-based assay using M17D neuroblastoma cells that express inclusion-prone αS-3K::YFP. 5-NBA abrogated the fibril, oligomer, and inclusion formation in a dose-dependent manner. 5-NBA derivatives could be the key to mitigate protein aggregation. In the future, the results made from this study will provide an initial platform to generate more potent inhibitors of α-syn and tau 2N4R oligomer and fibril formation.