A new series of 3-O-substituted xanthone derivatives were synthesised and evaluated for their anti-cholinergic activities against acetylcholinesterase (AChE) and butyrylcholinesterase (BChE). The results indicated that the xanthone derivatives possessed good AChE inhibitory activity with eleven of them (5, 8, 11, 17, 19, 21-23, 26-28) exhibited significant effects with the IC50 values ranged 0.88 to 1.28 µM. The AChE enzyme kinetic study of 3-(4-phenylbutoxy)-9H-xanthen-9-one (23) and ethyl 2-((9-oxo-9H-xanthen-3-yl)oxy)acetate (28) showed a mixed inhibition mechanism. Molecular docking study showed that 23 binds to the active site of AChE and interacts via extensive π-π stacking with the indole and phenol side chains of Trp86 and Tyr337, besides the hydrogen bonding with the hydration site and π-π interaction with the phenol side chain of Y72. This study revealed that 3-O-alkoxyl substituted xanthone derivatives are potential lead structures, especially 23 and 28 which can be further developed into potent AChE inhibitors.
A series of C4-substituted tertiary nitrogen-bearing 2'-hydroxychalcones were designed and synthesised based on a previous mixed type acetylcholinesterase inhibitor. Majority of the 2'-hydroxychalcone analogues displayed a better inhibition against acetylcholinesterase (AChE) than butyrylcholinesterase (BuChE). Among them, compound 4c was identified as the most potent AChE inhibitor (IC50: 3.3 µM) and showed the highest selectivity for AChE over BuChE (ratio >30:1). Molecular docking studies suggested that compound 4c interacts with both the peripheral anionic site (PAS) and catalytic anionic site (CAS) regions of AChE. ADMET analysis confirmed the therapeutic potential of compound 4c based on its blood-brain barrier penetrating. Overall, the results suggest that this 2'-hydroxychalcone deserves further investigation into the therapeutic lead for Alzheimer's disease (AD).
3,4-Dimethoxybenzohydrazide derivatives (1-25) have been synthesized and evaluated for their urease inhibitory potential. Among the series, compounds 2, 3, 4 and 5 with IC50 values 12.61 ± 0.07, 18.24 ± 0.14, 19.22 ± 0.21, and 8.40 ± 0.05 µM, respectively, showed excellent urease inhibitory potentials when compared with standard thiourea (IC50 value 21.40 ± 0.21 µM). Compounds 1, 6, 8, 18, 19 and 20 also showed good to moderate inhibition, while the remaining compounds were found to be completely inactive. The structures of compounds 6 and 25 were confirmed through X-ray crystallography while the structures of remaining compounds were confirmed through ESI-MS and 1H NMR. Molecular docking studies were performed understand the binding interactions with enzyme active site. The synthesized compounds were evaluated for cytotoxicity and found to be nontoxic.
Tuberculosis (TB) is a chronic, potentially fatal disease caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb). The dihyrofolate reductase in Mtb (mt-DHFR) is believed to be an important drug target in anti-TB drug development. This enzyme contains a glycerol (GOL) binding site, which is assumed to be a useful site to improve the selectivity towards human dihyrofolate reductase (h-DHFR). There have been previous attempts to design drugs targeting the GOL binding site, but the designed compounds contain a hydrophilic group, which may prevent the compounds from crossing the cell wall of Mtb to function at the whole cell level. In the current study, we designed and synthesized a series of mt-DHFR inhibitors that contain a 2,4-diaminopyrimidine core with side chains to occupy the glycerol binding site with proper hydrophilicity for cell entry, and tested their anti-tubercular activity against Mtb H37Ra. Among them, compound 16l showed a good anti-TB activity (MIC = 6.25 μg/mL) with a significant selectivity against vero cells. In the molecular simulations performed to understand the binding poses of the compounds, it was noticed that only side chains of a certain size can occupy the glycerol binding site. In summary, the novel synthesized compounds with appropriate side chains, hydrophobicity and selectivity could be important lead compounds for future optimization towards the development of future anti-TB drugs that can be used as monotherapy or in combination with other anti-TB drugs or antibiotics. These compounds can also provide much information for further studies on mt-DHFR. However, the enzyme target of the compounds still needs to be confirmed by pure mt-DHFR binding assays.
Thirty-two (32) bis-indolylmethane-hydrazone hybrids 1-32 were synthesized and characterized by 1HNMR, 13CNNMR and HREI-MS. All compounds were evaluated in vitro for β-glucuronidase inhibitory potential. All analogs showed varying degree of β-glucuronidase inhibitory potential ranging from 0.10 ± 0.01 to 48.50 ± 1.10 μM when compared with the standard drug d-saccharic acid-1,4-lactone (IC50 value 48.30 ± 1.20 μM). Derivatives 1-32 showed the highest β-glucuronidase inhibitory potentials which is many folds better than the standard drug d-saccharic acid-1,4-lactone. Further molecular docking study validated the experimental results. It was proposed that bis-indolylmethane may interact with some amino acid residues located within the active site of β-glucuronidase enzyme. This study has culminated in the identification of a new class of potent β-glucuronidase inhibitors.
Early detection and efficient treatment of cancer disease remains a drastic challenge in 21st century. Throughout the bulk of funds, studies, and current therapeutics, cancer seems to aggressively advance with drug resistance strains and recurrence rates. Nevertheless, nanotechnologies have indeed given hope to be the next generation for oncology applications. According to US National cancer institute, it is anticipated to revolutionize the perspectives of cancer diagnosis and therapy. With such success, nano-hybrid strategy creates a marvelous preference. Herein, graphene-gold based composites are being increasingly studied in the field of oncology, for their outstanding performance as robust vehicle of therapeutic agents, built-in optical diagnostic features, and functionality as theranostic system. Additional modes of treatments are also applicable including photothermal, photodynamic, as well as combined therapy. This review aims to demonstrate the various cancer-related applications of graphene-gold based hybrids in terms of detection and therapy, highlighting the major attributes that led to designate such system as a promising ally in the war against cancer.
Hybrid bisindole-thiosemicarbazides analogs (1-18) were synthesized and screened for β-glucuronidase activity. All compounds showed varied degree of β-glucuronidase inhibitory potential when compared with standard d-saccharic acid 1,4-lactone (IC50=48.4±1.25μM). Compounds 4, 7, 9, 6, 5, 12, 17 and 18 showed exceptional β-glucuronidase inhibition with IC50 values ranging from 0.1 to 5.7μM. Compounds 1, 3, 8, 16, 13, 2 and 14 also showed better activities than standard with IC50 values ranging from 7.12 to 15.0μM. The remaining compounds 10, 11, and 15 showed good inhibitory potential with IC50 values 33.2±0.75, 21.4±0.30 and 28.12±0.25μM respectively. Molecular docking studies were carried out to confirm the binding interaction of the compounds.
The bioactivity guided fractionation of Tetracera indica leaves crude ethanolic extract has afforded the isolation and characterization of six compounds including a new natural product viz., 5,7-dihydroxyflavone-O-8-sulphate (1) and five known flavonoids (2-6). The structures of the compounds were elucidated using 1D and 2D NMR and HRESIMS spectroscopic analyses. All the isolated compounds were evaluated for their in vitro inhibitory activity against alpha-glucosidase. Compound 1, 5 and 6 showed strong alpha-glucosidase inhibitory activity, 3 and 4 displayed weak activity while compound 2 was inactive. The interactions of the active compounds with alpha-glucosidase were further investigated using molecular docking to confirm their antidiabetic potential.
Congenital myopathy is a broad category of muscular diseases with symptoms appearing at the time of birth. One type of congenital myopathy is Congenital Fiber Type Disproportion (CFTD), a severely debilitating disease. The G48D and G48C mutations in the D-loop and the actin-myosin interface are the two causes of CFTD. These mutations have been shown to significantly affect the structure and function of muscle fibers. To the author's knowledge, the effects of these mutations have not yet been studied. In this work, the power stroke structure of the head domain of myosin and the wild and mutated types of actin were modeled. Then, a MD simulation was run for the modeled structures to study the effects of these mutations on the structure, function, and molecular dynamics of actin. The wild and mutated actins docked with myosin showed differences in hydrogen bonding patterns, free binding energies, and hydrogen bond occupation frequencies. The G48D and G48C mutations significantly impacted the conformation of D-loops because of their larger size compared to Glycine and their ability to interfere with the polarity or hydrophobicity of this neutralized and hydrophobic loop. Therefore, the mutated loops were unable to fit properly into the hydrophobic groove of the adjacent G-actin. The abnormal structure of D-loops seems to result in the abnormal assembly of F-actins, giving rise to the symptoms of CFTD. It was also noted that G48C and G48D did not form hydrogen bonds with myosin in the residue 48 location. Nevertheless, in this case, muscles are unable to contract properly due to muscle atrophy.
Cardamonin is a natural chalcone that has been shown to exhibit high anticancer activity. In an attempt to discover analogues of cardamonin with enhanced anticancer activity, 19 analogues were synthesized and tested against A549 and HK1 cell lines. Results of the MTS cell viability assay showed that several derivatives possessed cytotoxic activities that were several-fold more potent than cardamonin. SAR analysis showed the importance of the ketone and alkene groups for bioactivity, while substituting cardamonin's phenolic groups with more polar moieties resulted in activity enhancement. As part of the SAR study and further exploration of chemical space, the effect of metal coordination on cytotoxicity was also investigated, but it was only possible to successfully obtain the Cu (II) complex of cardamonin (19). Compound 19 was the most active analogue possessing IC50 values of 13.2μM and 0.7μM against A549 and HK1 cells, corresponding to a 5- and 32-fold increase in activity, respectively. It was also able to significantly inhibit the migration of A549 and HK1 cells. Further mode of action studies have shown that the most active analogue, 19, induced DNA damage resulting in G2/M-phase cell- cycle arrest in both cell lines. These events further led to the induction of apoptosis by the compound via caspase-3/7 and caspase-9 activation, PARP cleavage and downregulation of Mcl-1 expression. Moreover, 19 inhibited the expression levels of p-mTOR and p-4EBP1, which indicated that it exerted its anticancer activity, at least in part, via inhibition of the mTOR signalling pathway.
In an effort to find new ocular hypotensive drug candidates, a total of 27 condensed benzimidazoles based compounds were screened. This study was done in normotensive rats and rebound tonometry was used to estimate IOP. All compounds were topically applied as a single drop, unilaterally, at 3 different concentrations (0.1%, 0.2% and 0.4%). The contralateral eye was instilled with vehicle and served as control. The IOP reduction was measured up to 6h. It was observed that with a single topical instillation, compounds RU 551, RU 555, RU839 (pyrimido[1,2-a]benzimidazole derivatives), and RU 615 (imidazo[1,2-a]benzimidazole derivative) showed significant IOP lowering activities in ocular normotensive rats. All other compounds showed none, weak and inconsistent IOP lowering effect. The relationship between ability of IOP lowering and hypotensive activities was studied. According to the pharmacophore analysis, the class of pyrimido[1,2-a]benzimidazole is more promising than the class of imidazo[1,2-a]benzimidazole as a source of compounds with high IOP lowering activity. Pharmacophore analysis also showed that the critical features of high IOP lowering activity are methoxyphenyl and [phenyl]alkyl fragments, and non-conjugated six-membered heterocyclic ring.
Antimitotic colchicine possesses low therapeutic index due to high toxicity effects in non-target cell. However, diverse colchicine analogs have been derivatized as intentions for toxicity reduction and structure-activity relationship (SAR) studying. Hybrid system of colchicine structure with nontoxic biofunctional compounds modified further affords a new entity in chemical structure with enhanced activity and selectivity. Moreover, nanocarrier formulation strategies have been used for colchicine delivery. This review paper focuses on colchicine nanoformulation, chemical synthesis of colchicine prodrugs and codrugs with different linkers, highlights linker chemical nature and biological activity of synthesized compounds. Additionally, classification of colchicine prodrugs based on type of conjugates is discussed, as biopolymers prodrugs, fluorescent prodrug, metal complexes prodrug, metal-labile prodrug and bioconjugate prodrug. Finally, we briefly summarized the biological importance of colchicine nanoformulation, colchicine prodrugs and codrugs.
Thymidine phosphorylase (TP) over expression plays role in several pathological conditions, such as rheumatoid arthritis, chronic inflammatory diseases, psoriasis, and tumor angiogenesis. The inhibitor of this enzyme plays an important role in preventing the serious threat due to over expression of TP. In this regard, a series of seventeenanalogs of 3-formylcoumarin (1-17) were synthesized, characterized by 1HNMR and EI-MS and screened for thymidine phosphorylaseinhibitory activity. All analogs showed a variable degree of thymidine phosphorylase inhibition with IC50 values ranging between 0.90 ± 0.01 and 53.50 ± 1.20 μM when compared with the standard inhibitor 7-Deazaxanthine having IC50 value 38.68 ± 1.12 μM. Among the series, fifteenanalogs such as 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 15, 16 and 17 showed excellent inhibition which is many folds better than the standard 7-Deazaxanthine whiletwo analogs 13 and 14 showed good inhibition. The structure activity relationship (SAR) was mainly based upon by bring about difference of substituents on phenyl ring. Molecular docking study was carried out to understand the binding interaction of the most active analogs.
Recent outbreaks of highly pathogenic influenza strains have highlighted the need to develop new anti-influenza drugs. Here, we report an in silico study of carvone derivatives to analyze their binding modes with neuraminidase (NA) active sites. Two proposed carvone analogues, CV(A) and CV(B), with 36 designed ligands were predicted to inhibit NA (PDB ID: 3TI6) using molecular docking. The design is based on structural resemblance with the commercial inhibitor, oseltamivir (OTV), ligand polarity, and amino acid residues in the NA active sites. Docking simulations revealed that ligand A18 has the lowest energy binding (∆Gbind) value of -8.30 kcal mol-1, comparable to OTV with ∆Gbind of -8.72 kcal mol-1. A18 formed seven hydrogen bonds (H-bonds) at residues Arg292, Arg371, Asp151, Trp178, Glu227, and Tyr406, while eight H-bonds were formed by OTV with amino acids Arg118, Arg292, Arg371, Glu119, Asp151, and Arg152. Molecular dynamics (MD) simulation was conducted to compare the stability between ligand A18 and OTV with NA. Our simulation study showed that the A18-NA complex is as stable as the OTV-NA complex during the MD simulation of 50 ns through the analysis of RMSD, RMSF, total energy, hydrogen bonding, and MM/PBSA free energy calculations.
The use of monoclonal antibody as the next generation protein therapeutics with remarkable success has surged the development of antibody engineering to design molecules for optimizing affinity, better efficacy, greater safety and therapeutic function. Therefore, computational methods have become increasingly important to generate hypotheses, interpret and guide experimental works. In this chapter, we discussed the overall antibody design by computational approches.
Aim: To synthesize pyrrolopyridine-based thiazolotriazoles as a novel class of α-amylase and α-glucosidase inhibitors and to determine their enzymatic kinetics. Methodology: Pyrrolopyridine-based thiazolotriazole analogs (1-24) were synthesized and characterized through proton nuclear magnetic resonance, carbon-13 nuclear magnetic resonance and high-resolution electron ionization mass spectrometry. Results: All synthesized analogs displayed good inhibitory potential of α-amylase and α-glucosidase ranging 17.65-70.7 μM and 18.15-71.97 μM, respectively, compared with the reference drug, acarbose (11.98 μM and 12.79 μM). Analog 3 was the most potent among the synthesized analogs, having α-amylase and α-glucosidase inhibitory activity at 17.65 and 18.15 μM, respectively. The structure-activity relationship and binding modes of interactions between selected analogs were confirmed via docking and enzymatic kinetics studies. The compounds (1-24) were tested for cytotoxicity against the 3T3 mouse fibroblast cell line and were observed to be nontoxic.
Quaternary alkaloids are the major alkaloids isolated from Tinospora species. A previous study pointed to the necessary presence of quaternary nitrogens for strong acetylcholinesterase (AChE) inhibitory activity in such alkaloids. Repeated column chromatography of the vine of Tinospora crispa extract led to the isolation of one new protoberberine alkaloid, 4,13-dihydroxy-2,8,9-trimethoxydibenzo[a,g]quinolizinium (1), along with six known alkaloids-dihydrodiscretamine (2), columbamine (3), magnoflorine (4), N-formylannonaine (5), N-formylnornuciferine (6), and N-trans-feruloyltyramine (7). The seven compounds were isolated and structurally elucidated by spectroscopic analysis. Two known alkaloids, namely, dihydrodiscretamine and columbamine are reported for the first time for this plant. The compounds were tested for AChE inhibitory activity using Ellman's method. In the AChE inhibition assay, only columbamine (3) showed strong activity with IC50 48.1 µM. The structure-activity relationships derived from these results suggest that the quaternary nitrogen in the skeleton has some effect, but that a high degree of methoxylation is more important for acetylcholinesterase inhibition.
A series of symmetric molecules incorporating aryl or pyridyl moieties as central core and 1,4-substituted triazoles as a side bridge was synthesised. The new compounds were investigated as lactate dehydro-genase (LDH, EC 1.1.1.27) inhibitors. The cancer associated LDHA isoform was inhibited with IC50 = 117-174 µM. Seven compounds exhibited better LDHA inhibition (IC50 117-136 µM) compared to known LDH inhibitor - galloflavin (IC50 157 µM).
3CLpro is essential for SARS-CoV-2 replication and infection; its inhibition using small molecules is a potential therapeutic strategy. In this study, a comprehensive crystallography-guided fragment-based drug discovery approach was employed to design new inhibitors for SARS-CoV-2 3CLpro. All small molecules co-crystallized with SARS-CoV-2 3CLpro with structures deposited in the Protein Data Bank were used as inputs. Fragments sitting in the binding pocket (87) were grouped into eight geographical types. They were interactively coupled using various synthetically reasonable linkers to generate larger molecules with divalent binding modes taking advantage of two different fragments' interactions. In total, 1,251 compounds were proposed, and 7,158 stereoisomers were screened using Glide (standard precision and extra precision), AutoDock Vina, and Prime MMGBSA. The top 22 hits having conformations approaching the linear combination of their constituent fragments were selected for MD simulation on Desmond. MD simulation suggested 15 of these did adopt conformations very close to their constituent pieces with far higher binding affinity than either constituent domain alone. These structures could provide a starting point for the further design of SARS-CoV-2 3CLpro inhibitors with improved binding, and structures are provided.
Three undescribed (1-3) and nine known (4-12) platanosides were isolated and characterized from a bioactive extract of the May leaves of Platanus × acerifolia that initially showed inhibition against Staphylococcus aureus. Targeted compound mining was guided by an LC-MS/MS-based molecular ion networking (MoIN) strategy combined with conventional isolation procedures from a unique geographic location. The novel structures were mainly determined by 2D NMR and computational (NMR/ECD calculations) methods. Compound 1 is a rare acylated kaempferol rhamnoside possessing a truxinate unit. 6 (Z,E-platanoside) and 7 (E,E-platanoside) were confirmed to have remarkable inhibitory effects against both methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MIC: ≤ 16 μg/mL) and glycopeptide-resistant Enterococcus faecium (MIC: ≤ 1 μg/mL). These platanosides were subjected to docking analyses against FabI (enoyl-ACP reductase) and PBP1/2 (penicillin binding protein), both of which are pivotal enzymes governing bacterial growth but not found in the human host. The results showed that 6 and 7 displayed superior binding affinities towards FabI and PBP2. Moreover, surface plasmon resonance studies on the interaction of 1/7 and FabI revealed that 7 has a higher affinity (KD = 1.72 μM), which further supports the above in vitro data and is thus expected to be a novel anti-antibacterial drug lead.