scholarly journals Biological and Pharmacological Effects of Synthetic Saponins

Molecules ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 25 (21) ◽  
pp. 4974
Author(s):  
Yu-Pu Juang ◽  
Pi-Hui Liang

Saponins are amphiphilic molecules consisting of carbohydrate and either triterpenoid or steroid aglycone moieties and are noted for their multiple biological activities—Fungicidal, antimicrobial, antiviral, anti-inflammatory, anticancer, antioxidant and immunomodulatory effects have all been observed. Saponins from natural sources have long been used in herbal and traditional medicines; however, the isolation of complexed saponins from nature is difficult and laborious, due to the scarce amount and structure heterogeneity. Chemical synthesis is considered a powerful tool to expand the structural diversity of saponin, leading to the discovery of promising compounds. This review focuses on recent developments in the structure optimization and biological evaluation of synthetic triterpenoid and steroid saponin derivatives. By summarizing the structure–activity relationship (SAR) results, we hope to provide the direction for future development of saponin-based bioactive compounds.

Author(s):  
Shaoquan Lin ◽  
Han Liu ◽  
Esben B. Svenningsen ◽  
Christine Pedersen ◽  
Peter Nørby ◽  
...  

The polyether ionophores are complex natural products capable of transporting cations across biological membranes. Many family members possess highly potent antimicrobial activity and a few selected compounds have ability to target particularly aggressive cancer cells. Despite these interesting perspectives, a detailed understanding of the cellular mode-of-action of polyether ionophores is generally lacking. In principle, broad mapping of structure-activity relationships across several biological activities could provide mechanistic insights as well as identification of lead structures but access to structural diversity within the overall class is synthetically very challenging. In this manuscript, we demonstrate that novel polyether ionophores can be constructed by recycling components of highly abundant polyethers. We provide the first examples of synthetically incorporating halogen-functionalized tetronic acids as cation-binding groups into polyether ionophores and we identify analogs with strong anti-bacterial activity and minimal effects on mammalian cells.


2019 ◽  
Vol 14 (6) ◽  
pp. 1934578X1985822
Author(s):  
Tao Wu ◽  
Osafo Raymond Kwaku ◽  
Hai-Zhou Li ◽  
Chong-Ren Yang ◽  
Long-Jiao Ge ◽  
...  

The term ginseng refers to the dried roots of several plants belonging to the genus Panax of the Araliaceae family. The 3 major commercial ginsengs are Panax notoginseng (Burk.) F.H. Chen (Notoginseng), P. ginseng C.A. Meyer (Ginseng), and P. quinquefolius L. (American ginseng), which have been used as herbal medicines. Over 18,000 papers on ginsengs have been published on the basis of their structural diversity and biological activities. Many reviews have summarized the phytochemistry, pharmacology, and clinical use of ginsengs, but the structure-activity relationship (SAR) of ginsenosides from ginsengs in autophagy is unavailable. Herein, we review the structural diversity of ginsenosides, especially the ones in notoginseng, and the SAR in autophagic activity is discussed in detail.


Author(s):  
Shaoquan Lin ◽  
Han Liu ◽  
Esben B. Svenningsen ◽  
Christine Pedersen ◽  
Peter Nørby ◽  
...  

The polyether ionophores are complex natural products capable of transporting cations across biological membranes. Many family members possess highly potent antimicrobial activity and a few selected compounds have ability to target particularly aggressive cancer cells. Despite these interesting perspectives, a detailed understanding of the cellular mode-of-action of polyether ionophores is generally lacking. In principle, broad mapping of structure-activity relationships across several biological activities could provide mechanistic insights as well as identification of lead structures but access to structural diversity within the overall class is synthetically very challenging. In this manuscript, we demonstrate that novel polyether ionophores can be constructed by recycling components of highly abundant polyethers. We provide the first examples of synthetically incorporating halogen-functionalized tetronic acids as cation-binding groups into polyether ionophores and we identify analogs with strong anti-bacterial activity and minimal effects on mammalian cells.


2020 ◽  
Vol 26 (1) ◽  
pp. 138-159 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yanfei Ban ◽  
Tianshuang Xia ◽  
Rui Jing ◽  
Yaoli Guo ◽  
Yiya Geng ◽  
...  

Plants of the genus Vitex (Verbenaceae) are mainly distributed throughout tropical and temperate regions, and many Vitex plants have been traditionally used in folk medicine. Plants of this genus are a rich source of diterpenoids, which not only displayed versatile structural diversity with potential chemotaxonomical significance but also exhibited a wide range of biological activities, mainly including in vitro cytotoxic, antiinflammatory, antimicrobial, hormone level-regulating and antiangiogenic activities. Recently, a series of bioactive diterpenoids, with interesting carbon skeletons, have been reported and gathered considerable interest. This article systematically reviewed diterpenoids isolated from the genus Vitex that appeared in the literature up to December 2018, critically highlighting their structural diversity and pharmacological activities. Up to now, a total of 154 diterpenoids with diverse structures have been isolated and identified from Vitex plants. The authors also summarized the reported structure-activity relationships of those well explored Vitex diterpenoids. Finally, the authors discussed the challenges and potential applications of these diterpenoids in the future.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michal Pikusa ◽  
Olivier Rene ◽  
Sarah Williams ◽  
Yen-Liang Chen ◽  
Eric Martin ◽  
...  

Designing novel molecules with targeted biological activities and optimized physicochemical properties is a challenging endeavor in drug discovery. Recent developments in artificial intelligence have enhanced the early steps of de novo drug design and compound optimization. Herein, we present a generative adversarial network trained to design new chemical matter that satisfies a given biological signature. Our model, called pqsar2cpd, is based on the activity of compounds across multiple assays obtained via pQSAR (profile-quantitative structure-activity relationships). We applied pqsar2cpd to Chagas disease and designed a novel molecule that was experimentally confirmed to inhibit growth of parasites in vitro at low micromolar concentrations. Altogether, this approach bridges chemistry and biology into one single framework for the design of novel molecules with promising biological activity.


Marine Drugs ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 18 (7) ◽  
pp. 368
Author(s):  
Hanan I. Althagbi ◽  
Walied M. Alarif ◽  
Khalid O. Al-Footy ◽  
Ahmed Abdel-Lateff

The curiosity and attention that researchers have devoted to alkaloids are due to their bioactivities, structural diversity, and intriguing chemistry. Marine-derived macrocyclic alkaloids (MDMAs) are considered to be a potential source of drugs. Trabectedin, a tetrahydroisoquinoline derivative, has been approved for the treatment of metastatic soft tissue sarcoma and ovarian cancers. MDMAs displayed potent activities that enabled them to be used as anticancer, anti-invasion, antimalarial, antiplasmodial, and antimicrobial. This review presents the reported chemical structures, biological activities, and structure–activity relationships of macrocyclic alkaloids from marine organisms that have been published since their discovery until May 2020. This includes 204 compounds that are categorized under eight subclasses: pyrroles, quinolines, bis-quinolizidines, bis-1-oxaquinolizidines, 3-alkylpiperidines, manzamines, 3-alkyl pyridinium salts, and motuporamines.


Author(s):  
Dongguo Xia ◽  
Hao Liu ◽  
Xiang Cheng ◽  
Manikantha Maraswami ◽  
Yiting Chen ◽  
...  

Abstract: Coumarin scaffold is a highly significant O-heterocycle, namely benzopyran-2-ones, form an elite class of naturally occurring compounds that possess promising therapeutic perspectives. Based on its broad spectrum of biological activities, the privileged coumarin scaffold is applied to medicinal and pharmacological treatments by several rational design strategies and approaches. Structure-activity relationships of the coumarin-based hybrids with various bioactivity fragments revealed significant information toward the further development of highly potent and selective disorder therapeutic agents. The molecular docking studies between coumarins and critical therapeutic enzymes demonstrated mode of action by forming noncovalent interactions with more than one receptor, further rationally confirm information about structure-activity relationships. This review summarizes recent developments relating to coumarin-based hybrids with other pharmacophores aiming to numerous feasible therapeutic enzymatic targets to combat various therapeutic fields, including anticancer, antimicrobic, anti-Alzheimer, anti-inflammatory activities.


2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mohit S. Verma ◽  
Michael J. Fink ◽  
Gabriel L Salmon ◽  
Nadine Fornelos ◽  
Takahiro E. Ohara ◽  
...  

Two biological activities of butyrate in the colon (suppression of proliferation of colonic epithelial stem cells and inflammation) correlate with inhibition of histone deacetylases. Cellular and biochemical studies of molecules similar in structure to butyrate, but different in molecular details (functional groups, chain-length, deuteration, oxidation level, fluorination, or degree of unsaturation) demonstrated that these activities were sensitive to molecular structure, and were compatible with the hypothesis that butyrate acts by binding to the Zn<sup>2+</sup> in the catalytic site of histone deacetylases. Structure-activity relationships drawn from a set of 36 compounds offer a starting point for the design of new compounds targeting the inhibition of histone deacetylases. The observation that butyrate was more potent than other short-chain fatty acids is compatible with the hypothesis that crypts evolved (at least in part), to separate stem cells at the base of crypts from butyrate produced by commensal bacteria.


2020 ◽  
Vol 24 (22) ◽  
pp. 2665-2693
Author(s):  
Dipayan Mondal ◽  
Pankaj Lal Kalar ◽  
Shivam Kori ◽  
Shovanlal Gayen ◽  
Kalpataru Das

Indole moiety is often found in different classes of pharmaceutically active molecules having various biological activities including anticancer, anti-viral, anti-psychotic, antihypertensive, anti-migraine, anti-arthritis and analgesic activities. Due to enormous applications of indole derivatives in pharmaceutical chemistry, a number of conventional synthetic methods as well as green methodology have been developed for their synthesis. Green methodology has many advantages including high yields, short reaction time, and inexpensive reagents, highly efficient and environmentally benign over conventional methods. Currently, the researchers in academia as well as in pharmaceutical industries have been developing various methods for the chemical synthesis of indole based compounds via green approaches to overcome the drawbacks of conventional methods. This review reflects the last ten years developments of the various greener methods for the synthesis of indole derivatives by using microwave, ionic liquids, water, ultrasound, nanocatalyst, green catalyst, multicomponent reaction and solvent-free reactions etc. (please see the scheme below). Furthermore, the applications of green chemistry towards developments of indole containing pharmaceuticals and their biological studies have been represented in this review.


2014 ◽  
Vol 14 (12) ◽  
pp. 963-977 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrea Milelli ◽  
Carmela Fimognari ◽  
Nicole Ticchi ◽  
Paolo Neviani ◽  
Anna Minarini ◽  
...  

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