Exploiting the Thiobarbituric Acid Scaffold for Antibacterial Activity

Application of electrospinning to fabricate phycocyanin- and Spirulina extract-loaded gliadin fibers for active food packaging

This study explored the active food packaging application of phycocyanin- and Spirulina extract-loaded gliadin electrospun fibers (GPhy and GSPE5%). SEM findings confirmed that the morphology of fibers was tubular, showing the GPhy and GSPE5% as the optimum fibers. The loading efficiencies of GPhy and GSPE5% were also around 90%, which proved the well-incorporated compounds within the fibers. Simulation results of α-gliadin dissolved in acetic acid illustrated the denaturation of the protein. FTIR and TGA confirmed that after electrospinning the chemical/structural changes and enhanced thermostabilities occurred, respectively. Antibacterial and antioxidant tests detected higher bactericidal and antioxidative effects of GSPE5% than GPhy. In the application part, it was found that GPhy and GSPE5% were able to decrease PV and TBA values as the indications of walnut kernels' protection from lipid oxidation. This work shows a facile and an efficient way to fabricate active food packaging materials using electrospinning and natural compounds.

Bis-thiobarbiturates as Promising Xanthine Oxidase Inhibitors: Synthesis and Biological Evaluation

Xanthine oxidase (XO) is the enzyme responsible for the conversion of endogenous purines into uric acid. Therefore, this enzyme has been associated with pathological conditions caused by hyperuricemia, such as the disease commonly known as gout. Barbiturates and their congeners thiobarbiturates represent a class of heterocyclic drugs capable of influencing neurotransmission. However, in recent years a very large group of potential pharmaceutical and medicinal applications have been related to their structure. This great diversity of biological activities is directly linked to the enormous opportunities found for chemical change off the back of these findings. With this in mind, sixteen bis-thiobarbiturates were synthesized in moderate to excellent reactional yields, and their antioxidant, anti-proliferative, and XO inhibitory activity were evaluated. In general, all bis-thiobarbiturates present a good antioxidant performance and an excellent ability to inhibit XO at a concentration of 30 µM, eight of them are superior to those observed with the reference drug allopurinol (Allo), nevertheless they were not as effective as febuxostat. The most powerful bis-thiobarbiturate within this set showed in vitro IC₅₀ of 1.79 μM, which was about ten-fold better than Allo inhibition, together with suitable low cytotoxicity. In silico molecular properties such as drug-likeness, pharmacokinetics, and toxicity of this promising barbiturate were also analyzed and herein discussed.

Direct Access to α,β-Unsaturated Ketones via Rh/MgCl2-Mediated Acylation of Vinylsilanes

We report herein the facile and practical construction of α,β-unsaturated ketones via rhodium-catalyzed direct acylation of vinylsilanes with readily available and abundant carboxylic acids. This protocol features access to a diverse array of synthetically useful functionalities with moderate to excellent yields. More importantly, the late-stage functionalization of pharmaceuticals was also realized with synthetically useful yield.

Novel thiobarbiturates as potent urease inhibitors with potential antibacterial activity: Design, synthesis, radiolabeling and biodistribution study

Urease enzyme is a virulence factor that helps in colonization and maintenance of highly pathogenic bacteria in human. Hence, the inhibition of urease enzymes is well-established to be a promising approach for preventing deleterious effects of ureolytic bacterial infections. In this work, novel thiobarbiturate derivatives were synthesized and evaluated for their urease inhibitory activity. All tested compounds effectively inhibited the activity of urease enzyme. Compounds 1, 2a, 2b, 4 and 9 displayed remarkable anti-urease activity (IC₅₀ = 8.21-16.95 μM) superior to that of thiourea reference standard (IC₅₀ = 20.04 μM). Moreover, compounds 3a, 3g, 5 and 8 were equipotent to thiourea. Among the tested compounds, morpholine derivative 4 (IC₅₀ = 8.21 µM) was the most potent one, showing 2.5 folds the activity of thiourea. In addition, the antibacterial activity of the synthesized compounds was estimated against both standard strains and clinical isolates of urease producing bacteria. Compound 4 explored the highest potency exceeding that of cephalexin reference drug. Moreover, biodistribution study using radiolabeling approach revealed a remarked uptake of ^99mTc-compound 4 into infection induced in mice. Furthermore, a molecular docking analysis revealed proper orientation of title compounds into the urease active site rationalizing their potent anti-urease activity.

Crystal Structure and Theoretical Investigation of Thiobarbituric Acid Derivatives as Nonlinear Optical (NLO) Materials

Here we report on the crystal structure of three enamine/imine TBA derivatives (1–3). Since the derivatives can take the form of enamine or imine tautomers, theoretical calculations were made to confirm that the former predominates due to higher stability (thermodynamic calculations). The enamines’ form was further corroborated by high activation energy (ΔG≠; which is >60 kcal/mol in all the cases), thus requiring a large amount of energy to pass the barrier (kinetics calculations). Furthermore, 1–3 were found to show high static hyperpolarizability (βtot), thereby making them potential candidates as nonlinear materials for electro-optical devices and crystal engineering.

Crystal structure, spectroscopic studies and theoretical studies of thiobarbituric acid derivatives: understanding the hydrogen-bonding patterns

In addition to their wide-ranging applications in the pharmaceutical industry, thiobarbituric acid (TBA) derivatives are also known to possess applications in engineering and materials science. 20 TBA derivatives, with diversity at the N and C-5 positions through acylation, Schiff base formation, Knoevenagel condensation, thioamide and enamine formation, were studied. The absolute configurations for six derivatives, namely 5-acetyl-1,3-diethyl-2-thioxodihydropyrimidine-4,6(1H,5H)-dione, C₁₀H₁₄N₂O₃S, A01, 1,3-diethyl-5-propionyl-2-thioxodihydropyrimidine-4,6(1H,5H)-dione, C₁₁H₁₆N₂O₃S, A02, tert-butyl [1-(1,3-diethyl-4,6-dioxo-2-thioxohexahydropyrimidin-5-yl)-3-methyl-1-oxobutan-2-yl]carbamate, C₁₈H₂₉N₃O₅S, A06, 1,3-diethyl-4,6-dioxo-2-thioxo-N-(p-tolyl)hexahydropyrimidine-5-carbothioamide, C₁₆H₁₉N₃O₂S₂, A13, 5-(1-aminoethylidene)-1,3-diethyl-2-thioxodihydropyrimidine-4,6(1H,5H)-dione, C₁₀H₁₅N₃O₂S, A17, and 5-(1-aminopropylidene)-1,3-diethyl-2-thioxodihydropyrimidine-4,6(1H,5H)-dione, C₁₁H₁₇N₃O₂S, A18, were confirmed by single-crystal X-ray crystallography, which indicates the formation of intramolecular hydrogen bonding in all six cases and intermolecular hydrogen bonding for A17. In A13, the presence of two intramolecular hydrogen bonds was observed. The stabilization of the enol form over the keto form was confirmed by computation. In order to convert the keto form to the enol form, an energy barrier of 55.05 kcal mol^-1 needs to be overcome, as confirmed by transition-state calculations.