Creatinyl amino acids—new hybrid compounds with neuroprotective activity

Prolonged oral creatine administration resulted in remarkable neuroprotection in experimental models of brain stroke. However, because of its polar nature creatine has poor ability to penetrate the blood–brain barrier (BBB) without specific creatine transporter (CRT). Thus, synthesis of hydrophobic derivatives capable of crossing the BBB by alternative pathway is of great importance for the treatment of acute and chronic neurological diseases including stroke, traumatic brain injury and hereditary CRT deficiency. Here we describe synthesis of new hybrid compounds—creatinyl amino acids, their neuroprotective activity in vivo and stability to degradation in different media. The title compounds were synthesized by guanidinylation of corresponding sarcosyl peptides or direct creatine attachment using isobutyl chloroformate method. Addition of lipophilic counterion (p‐toluenesulfonate) ensures efficient creatine dissolution in DMF with simultaneous protection of guanidino group towards intramolecular cyclization. It excludes the application of expensive guanidinylating reagents, permits to simplify synthetic procedure and adapt it to large‐scale production. The biological activity of creatinyl amino acids was tested in vivo on ischemic stroke and NaNO₂‐induced hypoxia models. One of the most effective compounds—creatinyl‐glycine ethyl ester increases life span of experimental animals more than two times in hypoxia model and has neuroprotective action in brain stroke model when applied both before and after ischemia. These data evidenced that creatinyl amino acids can represent promising candidates for the development of new drugs useful in stroke treatment. Copyright © 2011 European Peptide Society and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.