Continuous efforts in the development of monoamine oxidase inhibitors
prompted the search for effective strategies for the design of novel drugs candidate.
Thankfully, nature often provides scaffolds useful for the promotion of novel
exploitable chemical entities. In this regard, aurones (a class of uncommon flavonoids)
and their structural related analogues may play an important role in the development of
monoamine oxidase inhibitors. The target prediction of the simplest aurone (2-
benzylidenebenzofuran-3(2H)-one) clearly suggests that this compound probably
affects MAO (monoamine oxidase) enzymes, which is in accordance with the recently
reported literature. The current chapter reports the recent discoveries involving aurones
and their structurally related analogues as MAO inhibitors, describing detailed
structure-activity relationships (SARs) for each subgroup of compounds.
Keywords: Aurones, Homoisoflavonoids, Indanones, MAO inhibitors, Monoamine oxidase, Neurodegenerative diseases, Tetralones.
