Continuing our studies on polyamine-based compounds of potential interest in the field of Alzheimer's disease therapeutics, we investigated the structure-activity relationships (SAR) of a lead compound (caproctamine, 3) identified in a previous work. In particular, we varied the substituents on the phenyl ring and on the nitrogen functions (both the amine and the amide), and studied the effects of such modifications on the inhibitory potency against isolated acetyl- and butyryl-cholinesterase (AChE and BChE). Moreover, the ability of selected compounds to reverse the d-tubocurarine-induced neuromuscular blockade and their antagonism toward muscarinic M(2) receptors in guinea pig left atrium were assayed. The most interesting SAR result was the identification of a relationship between the electronic characteristics of 2-substituents (measured by pK(a)) and the AChE inhibitory potency (pIC(50)) of tertiary amine compounds 6-12, which was confirmed by the invariance of the pIC(50) values of the corresponding methiodide derivatives 14-20. With regard to the biological profile, the most interesting compound was the N-ethyl-analogue of caproctamine (9), that showed pIC(50) values of 7.73 (+/-0.02) and 5.65 (+/-0.03) against AChE and BChE, respectively. The ability to increase the acetylcholine level was maintained in the functional assay (pAI(50) for reversing the neuromuscular blockade was 6.45 (+/-0.07)), as well as the ability to antagonize the M(2) receptors (pK(b) = 5.65 (+/-0.06)). Moreover, 9 showed a long duration of action as AChE inhibitor, an useful property in view of a possible development of this compound as a therapeutic agent.