Synthesis and studies of calcium channel blocking and antioxidant activities of novel 4-pyridinium and/or N-propargyl substituted 1,4-dihydropyridine derivatives

The novel 1,4-dihydropyridine derivatives containing the cationic pyridine moiety at the position 4, and the N-propargyl group as a substituent at position 1 of the 1,4-DHP cycle were designed, synthesised, and assessed in biological tests. Among all the novel compounds, the 4-(N-dodecyl) pyridinium group-containing compounds 11 (without the N-propargyl group) and 12 (with the N-propargyl group) demonstrated the highest calcium antagonistic properties against neuroblastoma SH-SY5Y (IC50 about 5–14 mM) and the vascular smooth muscle A7r5 cell (IC50 – 0.6–0.7 mM) lines, indicating that they predominantly target the L-type calcium channels. These compounds showed a slight total antioxidant act…