In the area of research on neurodegenerative diseases, the current challenge is to search for
appropriate research methods that would detect these diseases at the earliest possible stage, but
also new active structures that would reduce the rate of the disease progression and minimize the
intensity of their symptoms experienced by the patient. The chalcones are considered in the
context of candidates for new drugs dedicated to the fight against neurodegenerative diseases.
The synthesis of bis-chalcone derivatives (3a-3d), as aim molecules was performed. Their
structures were established by applying 1H NMR, 13C NMR, MS, FT-IR and UV–Vis spectra. All bis-
chalcones were synthesized from terephthalaldehyde and appropriate aromatic ketone as sub-
strates in the Claisen-Schmidt condensation method and evaluated in the biological tests and in
silico analysis. Compounds exerted antioxidant activity using the HORAC method (3a-3d) and
decreased the activities of GPx, COX-2 (3b-3d), GR (3a-3c) and CAT (3a,3b). The high anti-
neurodegenerative potential of all four bis-chalcones was observed by inhibition of acetyl-
(AChE) and butyrylcholinesterase (BChE) and a positive effect on the mouse hippocampal
neuronal HT-22 cell line (LDH release and PGC-1α, PPARγ and GAPDH protein expression). TD-
DFT method (computing a number of descriptors associated with HOMO–LUMO electron tran-
sition: electronegativity, chemical hardness and potential, first ionization potential, electron af-
finity) was employed to study the spectroscopic properties. This method showed that the first
excited state of compounds was consistent with their maximum absorption in the computed
UV–Vis spectra, which showed good agreement with the experimental spectrum using PBE1PBE
functional. Using in silico approach, interactions of bis-chalcones with selected targets (aryl hy-
drocarbon receptor (AhR) PAS-A Domain, ligand binding domain of human PPAR-γ, soman-aged
human BChE-butyrylthiocholine complex, Torpedo californica AChE:N-piperidinopropyl-
galanthamine complex and the COX-2-celecoxib complex) were characterized. Results obtained
in in silico models were consistent with in vitro experiments.