scholarly journals Design, Synthesis, and In Vitro Biological Activities of a Bio-Oxidizable Prodrug to Deliver Both ChEs and DYRK1A Inhibitors for AD Therapy

Molecules ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 24 (7) ◽  
pp. 1264 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anaïs Barré ◽  
Rabah Azzouz ◽  
Vincent Gembus ◽  
Cyril Papamicaël ◽  
Vincent Levacher

Despite their side effects, cholinesterase (ChE) inhibitors remain the only approved drugs to treat Alzheimer’s disease patients, along with the N-methyl-d-aspartate (NMDA) receptor antagonist memantine. In the last few years, the dual-specificity tyrosine phosphorylation-regulated kinase 1A (DYRK1A) has also been studied as a promising target for the development of new drugs for this pathology. In this context, and based on our previous characterization of bio-oxidizable prodrugs of potent acetylcholinesterase (AChE) inhibitors, we envisioned a strategy involving the synthesis of a bio-oxidizable prodrug of both ChE and DYRK1A inhibitors. To this end, we fixed our interest on a known potent inhibitor of DYRK1A, namely INDY. The designed prodrug of both ChE and DYRK1A inhibitors was successfully synthesized, connecting both inhibitors by a carbonate link. This prodrug and its corresponding drug were then evaluated as ChEs and DYRK1A inhibitors. Remarkably, in vitro results were in accordance with the starting hypothesis, showing a relative inactivity of the prodrug against DYRK1A and ChEs and a potent inhibition of ChEs by the oxidized form. Molecular docking and kinetic studies of ChE inhibition by the active compound are also discussed in this report.

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Flaviana Alves dos Santos ◽  
Marcel Lucas de Almeida ◽  
Vitor Alfredo de S. Silva ◽  
Douglas Carvalho Francisco Viana ◽  
Michelly Cristiny Pereira ◽  
...  

Abstract The combination of pharmacophoric nuclei with different targets has been a strategy for the development of new drugs aimed at improving cancer treatment. A series of ten novel phthalimido-thiazolidine-2-4-dione derivatives were synthesized by two different synthetic routes. The compounds were tested and evaluated in vitro, through antineoplastic activities against cancer cells. Cell cycle analyzes and clonogenic assay were also performed. In addition to these tests, in silico predictions were performed. The synthesized FT-12 compound (9j) exhibited antiproliferative activity against Panc-1, Sk-mel-28 and PC-3 cells. FT-12 reduced the ability to form new clones, also caused irreversibility in cell cycle, inducing arrest in phase S. Besides, the compound (FT-12) caused necrosis and apoptosis. The results suggest that phthalimido-thiazolidine derivatives may be useful in cancer therapy, highlighting compound FT-12 (9j) as a promising candidate. More studies must be carried out to confirm the viability.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Flaviana A. Santos ◽  
Marcel L. Almeida ◽  
Vitor A. S. Silva ◽  
Douglas Carvalho Francisco Viana ◽  
Michelly C. Pereira ◽  
...  

Abstract The combination of pharmacophoric nuclei with different targets has been a strategy for the development of new drugs aimed at improving cancer treatment. A series of ten novel phthalimido-thiazolidine-2-4-dione derivatives were synthesized by two different synthetic routes. The compounds were tested and evaluated in vitro, through antineoplastic activities against cancer cells. Cell cycle analyzes and clonogenic assay were also performed. In addition to these tests, in silico predictions were performed. The synthesized FT-12 compound (9j) exhibited antiproliferative activity against Panc-1, Sk-mel-28 and PC-3 cells. FT-12 reduced the ability to form new clones, also caused irreversibility in cell cycle, inducing arrest in phase S. Besides, the compound (FT-12) caused necrosis and apoptosis. The results suggest that phthalimido-thiazolidine derivatives may be useful in cancer therapy, highlighting compound FT-12 (9j) as a promising candidate. More studies must be carried out to confirm the viability.


2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (23) ◽  
pp. 2106-2117
Author(s):  
Martin Krátký ◽  
Šárka Štěpánková ◽  
Michaela Brablíková ◽  
Katarína Svrčková ◽  
Markéta Švarcová ◽  
...  

Background: Hydrazide-hydrazones have been known as scaffold with various biological activities including inhibition of acetyl- (AChE) and butyrylcholinesterase (BuChE). Cholinesterase inhibitors are mainstays of dementias’ treatment. Objective: Twenty-five iodinated hydrazide-hydrazones and their analogues were designed as potential central AChE and BuChE inhibitors. Methods: Hydrazide-hydrazones were synthesized from 4-substituted benzohydrazides and 2-/4- hydroxy-3,5-diiodobenzaldehydes. The compounds were investigated in vitro for their potency to inhibit AChE from electric eel and BuChE from equine serum using Ellman’s method. We calculated also physicochemical and structural parameters for CNS delivery. Results: The derivatives exhibited a moderate dual inhibition with IC50 values ranging from 15.1-140.5 and 35.5 to 170.5 μmol.L-1 for AChE and BuChE, respectively. Generally, the compounds produced a balanced or more potent inhibition of AChE. N'-[(E)-(4-Hydroxy-3,5-diiodophenyl)methylidene]-4- nitrobenzohydrazide 2k and 4-fluoro-N'-(2-hydroxy-3,5-diiodobenzyl)benzohydrazide 3a were the most potent inhibitors of AChE and BuChE, respectively. Structure-activity relationships were established, and molecular docking studies confirmed interaction with enzymes. Conclusion: Many novel hydrazide-hydrazones showed lower IC50 values than rivastigmine against AChE and some of them were comparable for BuChE to this drug used for the treatment of dementia. They interact with cholinesterases via non-covalent binding into the active site. Based on the BOILEDEgg approach, the majority of the derivatives met the criteria for blood-brain-barrier permeability.


2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Miao-Miao Zhao ◽  
Wei-Li Yang ◽  
Fang-Yuan Yang ◽  
Li Zhang ◽  
Wei-Jin Huang ◽  
...  

AbstractTo discover new drugs to combat COVID-19, an understanding of the molecular basis of SARS-CoV-2 infection is urgently needed. Here, for the first time, we report the crucial role of cathepsin L (CTSL) in patients with COVID-19. The circulating level of CTSL was elevated after SARS-CoV-2 infection and was positively correlated with disease course and severity. Correspondingly, SARS-CoV-2 pseudovirus infection increased CTSL expression in human cells in vitro and human ACE2 transgenic mice in vivo, while CTSL overexpression, in turn, enhanced pseudovirus infection in human cells. CTSL functionally cleaved the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein and enhanced virus entry, as evidenced by CTSL overexpression and knockdown in vitro and application of CTSL inhibitor drugs in vivo. Furthermore, amantadine, a licensed anti-influenza drug, significantly inhibited CTSL activity after SARS-CoV-2 pseudovirus infection and prevented infection both in vitro and in vivo. Therefore, CTSL is a promising target for new anti-COVID-19 drug development.


2018 ◽  
Vol 64 (7) ◽  
pp. 455-464 ◽  
Author(s):  
Géssika Silva Souza ◽  
Lais Pessanha de Carvalho ◽  
Edésio José Tenório de Melo ◽  
Valdirene Moreira Gomes ◽  
André de Oliveira Carvalho

Plant defensins are plant antimicrobial peptides that present diverse biological activities in vitro, including the elimination of Leishmania amazonensis. Plant defensins are considered promising candidates for the development of new drugs. This protozoan genus has great epidemiological importance and the mechanism behind the protozoan death by defensins is unknown, thus, we chose L. amazonensis for this study. The aim of the work was to analyze the possible toxic mechanisms of Vu-Defr against L. amazonensis. For analyses, the antimicrobial assay was repeated as previously described, and after 24 h, an aliquot of the culture was tested for viability, membrane perturbation, mitochondrial membrane potential, reactive oxygen species (ROS) and nitric oxide (NO) inductions. The results of these analyses indicated that after interaction with L. amazonensis, the Vu-Defr causes elimination of promastigotes from culture, membrane perturbation, mitochondrial membrane collapse, and ROS induction. Our analysis demonstrated that NO is not produced after Vu-Defr and L. amazonensis interaction. In conclusion, our work strives to help to fill the gap relating to effects caused by plant defensins on protozoan and thus better understand the mechanism of action of this peptide against L. amazonensis.


2020 ◽  
Vol 44 (6) ◽  
pp. 2247-2255
Author(s):  
Qifan Zhou ◽  
Lina Jia ◽  
Fangyu Du ◽  
Xiaoyu Dong ◽  
Wanyu Sun ◽  
...  

A novel series of pyrrole-3-carboxamides targeting EZH2 have been designed and synthesized. The structure–activity relationships were summarized by combining with in vitro biological activity assay and docking results.


Marine Drugs ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 18 (10) ◽  
pp. 519
Author(s):  
Sarah Mazzotta ◽  
Gabriele Carullo ◽  
Aniello Schiano Moriello ◽  
Pietro Amodeo ◽  
Vincenzo Di Marzo ◽  
...  

Labdane diterpenes are widespread classes of natural compounds present in variety of marine and terrestrial organisms and plants. Many of them represents “natural libraries” of compounds with interesting biological activities due to differently functionalized drimane nucleus exploitable for potential pharmacological applications. The transient receptor potential channel subfamily V member 4 (TRPV4) channel has recently emerged as a pharmacological target for several respiratory diseases, including the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection. Inspired by the labdane-like bicyclic core, a series of homodrimane-derived esters and amides was designed and synthesized by modifying the flexible tail in position 1 of (+)-sclareolide, an oxidized derivative of the bioactive labdane-type diterpene sclareol. The potency and selectivity towards rTRPV4 and hTRPV1 receptors were assessed by calcium influx cellular assays. Molecular determinants critical for eliciting TRPV4 antagonism were identified by structure-activity relationships. Among the selective TRPV4 antagonists identified, compound 6 was the most active with an IC50 of 5.3 μM. This study represents the first report of semisynthetic homodrimane TRPV4 antagonists, selective over TRPV1, and potentially useful as pharmacological tools for the development of novel TRPV4 channel modulators.


2019 ◽  
Vol 65 (1) ◽  
pp. 55-70 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marcin Ożarowski ◽  
Radosław Kujawski ◽  
Przemysław Ł. Mikołajczak ◽  
Karolina Wielgus ◽  
Andrzej Klejewski ◽  
...  

Summary Flavonoids and their conjugates are the most important group of natural chemical compounds in drug discovery and development. The search for pharmacological activity and new mechanisms of activity of these chemical compounds, which may inhibit mediators of inflammation and influence the structure and function of endothelial cells, can be an interesting pharmacological strategy for the prevention and adjunctive treatments of hypertension, especially induced by pregnancy. Because cardiovascular diseases have multi-factorial pathogenesis these natural chemical compounds with wide spectrum of biological activities are the most interesting source of new drugs. Extracts from one of the most popular plant used in Traditional Chinese Medicine, Scutellaria baicalensis Georgi could be a very interesting source of flavonoids because of its exact content in quercetin, apigenin, chrysin and scutellarin as well as in baicalin. These flavonoids exert vasoprotective properties and many activities such as: anti-oxidative via several pathways, anti-in-flammatory, anti-ischaemic, cardioprotective and anti-hypertensive. However, there is lack of summaries of results of studies in context of potential and future application of flavonoids with determined composition and activity. Our review aims to provide a literature survey of in vitro, in vivo and ex vivo pharmacological studies of selected flavonoids (apigenin, chrysin and scutellarin, baicalin) in various models of hypertension carried out in 2008–2018.


2015 ◽  
Vol 2015 ◽  
pp. 1-29 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ricardo Silva-Carvalho ◽  
Fátima Baltazar ◽  
Cristina Almeida-Aguiar

The health industry has always used natural products as a rich, promising, and alternative source of drugs that are used in the health system. Propolis, a natural resinous product known for centuries, is a complex product obtained by honey bees from substances collected from parts of different plants, buds, and exudates in different geographic areas. Propolis has been attracting scientific attention since it has many biological and pharmacological properties, which are related to its chemical composition. Severalin vitroandin vivostudies have been performed to characterize and understand the diverse bioactivities of propolis and its isolated compounds, as well as to evaluate and validate its potential. Yet, there is a lack of information concerning clinical effectiveness. The goal of this review is to discuss the potential of propolis for the development of new drugs by presenting published data concerning the chemical composition and the biological properties of this natural compound from different geographic origins.


2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 607-621
Author(s):  
Olagoke Zacchaeus Olatunde ◽  
Danian Tian ◽  
Jianping Yong ◽  
Canzhong Lu

The essential oil was obtained from the seeds of Garcina kola and its compositions were investigated by GC-MS and ICP-MS, respectively. 74 organic compounds and 9 trace elements beneficial to human health were confirmed in this oil. Then, the in vitro antioxidant and anticancer activities were evaluated accordingly. The results showed that this essential oil exhibited stronger antioxidant activity against DPPH⸱ with the scavenging rate of 94.19% at 0.2 mg/mL, as well as potent inhibition against gastric cancer, lung cancer(A549) and Hela cell lines with the inhibitions of 96.397%±0.929, 98.005%±0.513 and 94.77±2.09 respectively at 8.3 mg/mL. While it exhibited moderate inhibition against the human breast carcinoma cells (MCF-7) with the inhibition of 59.257%±4.544 at 8.3mg/mL. In consideration of Garcina kola being consumed in Nigeria for a long time, this essential oil obtained from the Garcina kola can be used in the field of food, cosmetic or drugs.


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