Herein we have reviewed our recent developments for the identification of new tacrine analogues for Alzheimer's disease (AD) therapy. Tacrine, the first cholinesterase inhibitor approved for AD treatment, did not stop the progression of AD, producing only some cognitive improvements, but exhibited secondary effects mainly due to its hepatotoxicity. Thus, the drug was withdrawn from the clinics administration. Since then, many publications have described non-hepatotoxic tacrines, and in addition, important efforts have been made to design multitarget tacrines by combining their cholinesterase inhibition profile with the modulation of other biological targets involved in AD.
Keywords: Alzheimer's disease; Cholinesterase inhibition; Friedländer reaction; Hepatotoxicity; Tacrine derivatives.
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