In this study aliphatic polyacids were synthesized using palm acid oil (PAO) and sunflower oil (SFO) via addition reaction technique. The synthesized materials were characterized using Fourier-transform infra-red (FTIR) spectroscopy, nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy, matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-ToF-MS) and thermo-gravimetric analysis (TGA). Mixing formic acid and hydrogen peroxide with PAO or SFO at the ratio 3:10:1 produced the lowest iodine value of 10.57 and 9.24 respectively, indicating the increase in epoxidization of both oils. Adding adipic acid to the epoxidized oils at a ratio of 1:10 increases the acid values of SFO and PAO to 11.22 and 6.73 respectively. The existence of multi-acid groups present in synthesized polyacid was confirmed by MALD-ToF-MS. This feature indicates a possible value to the biomaterials development.
Apoptotic cell death is the cause of the loss of insulin-producing β-cells in all forms of diabetes mellitus. The identification of small molecules capable of protecting cytokine-induced apoptosis could form the basis of useful therapeutic interventions. Here in, we present the discovery and synthesis of new benzimidazole derivatives, capable of rescuing pancreatic β-cells from cytokine-induced apoptosis. Three hydrazone derivatives of benzimidazole significantly increased the cellular ATP levels, reduced caspase-3 activity, reduced nitrite production and increased glucose-stimulated insulin secretion in the presence of proinflammatory cytokines. These findings suggest that these compounds may protect β-cells from the harmful effects of cytokines and may serve as candidates for therapeutic intervention for diabetes.
Variation at the 3' position of fluorescein via Suzuki-Miyaura cross-coupling with aryl and heteroaryl moieties gave a family of anthofluoresceins whose spectroscopic properties were studied. The 1-methylindole derivative gave the highest quantum yield and was observed to behave as a molecular rotor, displaying marked variations in fluorescent intensities with viscosity and offering possible application in cellular sensing and fluorescent polarisation assays.
A series of fourteen dispiropyrrolidines were synthesized using [3+2]-cycloaddition reactions and were screened for their antimycobacterial activity against Mycobacterium tuberculosis H(37)Rv in HTS (High Throughput Screen). Most of the compounds showed moderate to good activity with MIC of less than 20 μM. Compound 4'-(4-bromophenyl)-1'-methyldispiro[acenaphthylene-1,2'-pyrrolidine-3',2″-indane]-2,1″(1H)-dione (4c) was found to be the most active with MIC of 12.50 μM.
A series of twelve dispiropyrrolidines were synthesized using [3+2]-cycloaddition reactions. The synthesized compounds were screened for their antimycobacterial activity against M. tuberculosis H(37)Rv and INH resistant M. tuberculosis strains using agar dilution method, four of them showed good activity with MIC of less than 1 μM. Compound 4'-[5-(4-fluorophenyl)pyridin-3-yl]-1'-methyldispiro[indan-2,2' pyrrolidine-3',2″-indan]-1,3,1″-trione (4b) was found to be the most active with MIC of 0.1215 and 5.121 μM, respectively.
We synthesized a series of novel 5-24 derivatives of oxindole. The synthesis started from 5-chlorooxindole, which was condensed with methyl 4-carboxybezoate and result in the formation of benzolyester derivatives of oxindole which was then treated with hydrazine hydrate. The oxindole benzoylhydrazide was treated with aryl acetophenones and aldehydes to get target compounds 5-24. The synthesized compounds were evaluated for urease inhibition; the compound 5 (IC50 = 13.00 ± 0.35 μM) and 11 (IC50 = 19.20 ± 0.50 μM) showed potent activity as compared to the standard drug thiourea (IC50 = 21.00 ± 0.01 μM). Other compounds showed moderate to weak activity. All synthetic compounds were characterized by different spectroscopic techniques including (1)H NMR, (13)C NMR, IR and EI MS. The molecular interactions of the active compounds within the binding site of urease enzyme were studied through molecular docking simulations.
Compounds 1-25 showed varying degree of antileishmanial activities with IC50 values ranging between 1.95 and 88.56 μM. Compounds 2, 10, and 11 (IC50=3.29±0.07 μM, 1.95±0.04 μM, and 2.49±0.03 μM, respectively) were found to be more active than standard pentamidine (IC50=5.09±0.04 μM). Compounds 7 (IC50=7.64±0.1 μM), 8 (IC50=13.17±0.46 μM), 18 (IC50=13.15±0.02 μM), and 24 (IC50=15.65±0.41 μM) exhibited good activities. Compounds 1, 3, 4, 5, 9, 12, 15, 18, and 19 were found to be moderately active. Compounds 13, 14, 16, 17, 20-25 showed weak activities with IC50 values ranging between 57 and 88 μM.
Hexacyclic derivatives share vital pharmacological properties, considered useful in Alzheimer's disease. The aim of this study was synthesis and its evaluation for acetyl cholinesterase inhibitory activity of novel hexacyclic analogues. Compound 4f, showed potent inhibitory activity against acetyl cholinesterase enzyme with IC(50) 0.72 μmol/L.
The rhizomes of Zingiber spectabile yielded a new dimeric flavonol glycoside for which the name kaempferol-3-O-(4″-O-acetyl)-α-L-rhamnopyranoside-(I-6,II-8)-kaempferol-3-O-(4″-O-acetyl)-α-L-rhamnopyranoside; spectaflavoside A (1) was proposed, along with kaempferol and its four acetylrhamnosides (2-6), demethoxycurcumin (7) and curcumin (8). The structure of spectaflavoside A was elucidated by spectroscopic methods including, 1D and 2D NMR techniques. This is the first report on the occurrence of a dimeric flavonol glycoside in the Zingiberaceae and the second in nature. Spectaflavoside A was found to be a potent iron chelating agent.
The rhizomes of Alpinia pahangensis Ridley yielded a new bis-labdanic diterpene for which the name pahangensin A (1) was proposed along with a new labdane diterpene, pahangensin B (2). Their structures were elucidated by spectroscopic methods including, 1D and 2D NMR techniques and LCMS-IT-TOF analysis. Pahangensin A (1) was found to be an antibacterial agent against Staphylococcus aureus, Bacillus cereus and Bacillus subtilis with MIC values less than 100 μg/mL, respectively. Pahangensin B (2) exhibited antibacterial activity (MIC <100 μg/mL) against B. cereus.
The discovery of potent inhibitors of prostaglandin E2 (PGE2) synthesis in recent years has been proven to be an important game changer in pharmaceutical industry. It is known that excessive production of PGE2 triggers a vast array of biological signals and physiological events that contributes to inflammatory diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis, atherosclerosis, cancer, and pain. In this Letter, we report the synthesis of a series of minor prenylated chalcones and flavonoids which was found to be significantly active in suppressing the PGE2 production secreted by lipopolysaccharide-induced mouse macrophage cells (RAW 264.7). Among the compounds tested, 14b showed a dose-response inhibition of PGE2 production with an IC50 value of 2.1 μM. The suppression upon PGE2 secretion was not due to cell death since 14b did not reduce the cell viability in close proximity to the PGE2 inhibition concentration. The obtained atomic coordinates for the single-crystal XRD of 14b was then applied in the docking simulation to determine the potential important binding interactions with murine COX-2 and mPGES-1 putative binding sites.
A series of novel hybrid heterocycles comprising arylidene thiazolidine-2,4-dione and 1-cyclopropyl-2-(2-fluorophenyl)ethanone were synthesized. These compounds were evaluated for their antimycobacterial activity against Mycobacterium tuberculosis H37Rv in High Throughput Screen. Most of the hybrid arylidene thiazolidine-2,4-diones displayed moderate to good activity with MIC of less than 50 μM. Compound 1m exhibited maximum potency being 5.87 fold more active at EC50 and 6.26 fold more active at EC90 than the standard drug pyrimethamine.
Vasorelaxation activity guided separation of the methanol extract of Calophyllum scriblitifolium bark led to the isolation of 6 chromanones (calofolic acids A-F, 1-6). Their structures were elucidated by 1D and 2D NMR spectroscopy, and their absolute configurations were investigated by a combination of CD spectroscopy and DFT calculation. All isolated chromanones showed dose-dependent vasorelaxation activity on isolated rat aorta.
We report the potential of carbon nanodots (CNDs) as a molecular scaffold for enhancing the antimicrobial activities of small dendritic poly(amidoamines) (PAMAM). Carbon nanodots prepared from sago starch are readily functionalized with PAMAM by using N-ethyl-N'-(3-dimethylaminopropyl)carbodiimide hydrochloride (EDC) and N-hydroxysuccinimide (NHS). Electron microscopy images of these polyaminated CNDs show that they are approximately 30-60nm in diameter. Infrared and fluorescence spectroscopy analyses of the water-soluble material established the presence of the polyamidoaminated moiety and the intrinsic fluorescence of the nanodots. The polyaminated nanodots (CND-PAM1 and CND-PAM2) exhibit in vitro antimicrobial properties, not only to non-multidrug resistant bacteria but also to the corresponding Gram-negative multidrug bacteria. Their minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) ranges from 8 to 64μg/mL, which is much lower than that of PAMAM G1 or the non-active PAMAM G0 and CNDs. Additionally, they show synergistic effect in combination with tetracycline or colistin. These preliminary results imply that CNDs can serve as a promising scaffold for facilitating the rational design of antimicrobial materials for combating the ever-increasing threat of antibiotic resistance. Moreover, their fluorescence could be pertinent to unraveling their mode of action for imaging or diagnostic applications.
Development of multidrug resistant (MDR) and extensively drug resistant (XDR) tuberculosis (TB) has been considered as major health burden, globally. In order to develop novel, potential molecules against drug resistant TB, twenty two (22) new 3-substituted-7-benzyl-5,6,7,8-tetrahydropyrido[4',3':4,5]thieno[2,3-d]pyrimidin-4(3H)-one (6a-k) and 3-substituted-7-benzyl-2-methyl-5,6,7,8-tetrahydropyrido[4',3':4,5]thieno[2,3-d]pyrimidin-4(3H)-one (7a-k) derivatives were designed and synthesized by using appropriate synthetic protocols. Pantothenate synthetase (PS) was considered as the target for the molecular docking studies and evaluated the binding pattern at active site, as PS plays a significant role in the biosynthesis of pantothenate in Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB). The preliminary in vitro antibacterial screening of test compounds was carried out against two strains of Gram-positive (Bacillus subtilis and Staphylococcus aureus) and Gram-negative (Escherichia coli and Klebsiella pneumoniae) bacteria. The antimycobacterial screening was performed against MTB H37Rv and an isoniazid-resistant clinical isolate of MTB. The compounds 6b, 6c, 6d, 6k, 7b, 7c, 7d and 7k exhibited promising antibacterial activity MIC in the range of 15-73 μM against all bacterial strains used and compounds 6d and 7b showed antimycobacterial activity (IC50 <340 μM in LRP assay) and (MIC <9 μM in broth microdilution method).
Four new chromone alkaloids, chrotacumines G-J (1-4), have been isolated from the barks of Dysoxylum acutangulum. Their structures and absolute configurations were elucidated on the basis of NMR and CD data. Chrotacumines G and J (1 and 4) showed osteoclast differentiation inhibitory activity in a dose dependent manner.
The new series of pentacyclic triterpenoids reduced lantadene A (3), B (4), and 22β-hydroxy-3-oxo-olean-12-en-28-oic acid (5) analogs were synthesized and tested in vitro for their NF-κB and IKKβ inhibitory potencies and cytotoxicity against A549 lung cancer cells. The lead analog (11) showed sub-micromolar activity against TNF-α induced activation of NF-κB and exhibited inhibition of IKKβ in a single-digit micromolar dose. At the same time, 11 showed promising cytotoxicity against A549 lung cancer cells with IC50 of 0.98 μM. The Western blot analysis further showed that the suppression of NF-κB activity by the lead analog 11 was due to the inhibition of IκBα degradation, a natural inhibitor of NF-κB. The physicochemical evaluation demonstrated that the lead analog 11 was stable in the simulated gastric fluid of pH 2, while hydrolyzed at a relatively higher rate in the human blood plasma to release the active parent moieties. Molecular docking analysis showed that 11 was hydrogen bonded with the Arg-31 and Gln-110 residues of the IKKβ.
The syntheses and bioactivities of symmetrical curcumin and its analogues have been the subject of interest by many medicinal chemists and pharmacologists over the years. To improve our understanding, we have synthesized a series of unsymmetrical monocarbonyl curcumin analogues and evaluated their effects on prostaglandin E2 production in lipopolysaccharide-induced RAW264.7 and U937 cells. Initially, compounds 8b and 8c exhibited strong inhibition on the production of PGE2 in both LPS-stimulated RAW264.7 (8b, IC50=12.01μM and 8c, IC50=4.86μM) and U937 (8b, IC50=3.44μM and 8c, IC50=1.65μM) cells. Placing vanillin at position Ar2 further improved the potency when both compounds 15a and 15b significantly lowered the PGE2 secretion level (RAW264.7: 15a, IC50=0.78μM and 15b, IC50=1.9μM while U937: 15a, IC50=0.95μM and 15b, IC50=0.92μM). Further experiment showed that compounds 8b, 8c, 15a and 15b did not target the activity of downstream inflammatory COX-2 mediator. Finally, docking simulation on protein targets COX-2, IKK-β, ERK, JNK2, p38α and p38β were performed using the conformation of 15a determined by single-crystal XRD.
In the present study, a series of nine stable 3,4,5-methoxylphenyl-containing asymmetrical diarylpentanoids, derivatives of curcuminoids, have been synthesized, characterized and evaluated for their in-vitro anti-cancer potential against a panel of BRAF- and KRAS-mutated colorectal cancer cell lines including T84, LoVo and SW620, HT29, RKO and NCI-H508, respectively. Structure-activity relationship study on cytotoxicity of tested compounds suggested that the presence of meta-hydroxyl and adjacent dimethoxyl groups are crucial for enhanced cytotoxicity of diarylpentanoids. Among the evaluated analogs, 8 has been identified as the lead compound due to its highest chemotherapeutic index of 9.9 and nano molar scale cytotoxicity against SW620 and RKO. Colonies formation and cell cycle analyses on 8-treated RKO cells showed that 8 exhibits strong anti-proliferative activity by inducing G2/M-phase cell arrest. Subsequent flow cytometry based annexin-V and DCFHDA studies suggested that 8 could induce apoptosis through intracellular ROS-dependent pathway. Further Western blot studies confirmed that 8 has induced intrinsic apoptosis in RKO cells through the up-regulations of Bad and Bax pro-apoptotic proteins and down-regulations of Bcl-2 and Bcl-xL pro-survival proteins. In all, the present results suggest that 8 could be a potent lead which deserves further modification and investigation in the development of small molecule-based anti-colorectal cancer agents.
A series of thirty-four diarylpentanoids derivatives were synthesized and evaluated for their α-glucosidase inhibitory activity. Eleven compounds (19, 20, 21, 24, 27, 28, 29, 31, 32, 33 and 34) were found to significantly inhibit α-glucosidase in which compounds 28, 31 and 32 demonstrated the highest activity with IC50 values ranging from 14.1 to 15.1 µM. Structure-activity comparison shows that multiple hydroxy groups are essential for α-glucosidase inhibitory activity. Meanwhile, 3,4-dihydroxyphenyl and furanyl moieties were found to be crucial in improving α-glucosidase inhibition. Molecular docking analyses further confirmed the critical role of both 3,4-dihydroxyphenyl and furanyl moieties as they bound to α-glucosidase active site in different mode. Overall result suggests that diarylpentanoids with both five membered heterocyclic ring and polyhydroxyphenyl moiety could be a new lead design in the search of novel α-glucosidase inhibitor.