Spectroelectrochemical studies of TDMQ20: A potential drug against Alzheimer’s disease

Alzheimer’s Disease (AD), reported for the first time in 1906, is a common disease that remains incurable to this day. In the past, a family of treatments using Cu(II) chelators failed during clinical trials, evidencing the importance of pre-clinical studies. In this work, we performed electrochemical characterisation of TDMQ20, a new potential drug against AD, using electrochemistry and spectroelectrochemistry. On the basis of voltammetry, we determined that TDMQ20 undergoes a two-step irreversible oxidation process and a one-step irreversible reduction process. Both oxidation and reduction reactions are pH-sensitive. Bidimensional UV–Vis spectroelectrochemistry (UV–Vis-SEC) allowed us to confirm that oxidation of TDMQ20 can occur both on the aliphatic chain and on the aromatic ring. The results expand the knowledge of the TDMQ20 redox activity in the human body which is important from the point of view of the toxicity of the proposed therapy.