In vitro activity: In SH-SY5Y cells, AZD3839 efficiently decreases the Aβ40 levels with IC50 of 4.8 nM, and decreases the formation of sAPPβ with IC50 of 16.7 nM. AZD3839 also decreases the Aβ40 levels secreted from C57BL/6 mouse primary cortical neurons, N2A cells, and Dunkin-Hartley guinea pig primary cortical neurons with IC50 values of 50.9, 32.2, and 24.8 nM, respectively. AZD3839 causes in vitro BACE1 inhibition in the cell assay with IC50 value of 16.7 nM.

Kinase Assay: AZD3839 (free base) is a potent and selective BACE1 inhibitor with IC50 of 23.6 uM, about 14-fold selectivity over BACE2, also a β-secretase enzyme inhibitor. target: BACE1, β-secretase enzyme.

Cell Assay: AZD3839 concentration-dependently inhibited BACE1 activity in a biochemical fluorescence resonance energy transfer assay, Aβ and sAPPβ release from modified and wild-type human SH-SY5Y cells and mouse N2A cells as well as from guinea pig and mouse primary cortical neurons. Selectivity against BACE2 and cathepsin D was 14 and>1000-fold, respectively.