Design, synthesis, biological evaluation and toxicity studies of N,N-disubstituted biguanides as quorum sensing inhibitors

Identification of CYP3A4 inhibitors as potential anti-cancer agents using pharmacoinformatics approach

Biguanide derivatives exhibit a wide variety of therapeutic applications, including anti-cancer effects. Metformin is an effective anti-cancer agent against breast cancer, lung cancer, and prostate cancer. In the crystal structure (PDB ID: 5G5J), it was found that metformin is found in the active site of CYP3A4, and the associated anti-cancer effect was explored. Taking clues from this work, pharmacoinformatics research has been carried out on a series of known and virtual biguanide, guanylthiourea (GTU), and nitreone derivatives. This exercise led to the identification of more than 100 species that exhibit greater binding affinity toward CYP3A4 in comparison to that of metformin. Selected six molecules were subjected to molecular dynamics simulations, and the results are presented in this work.

Synthetic accesses to biguanide compounds

Biguanide is a unique chemical function, which has attracted much attention a century ago and is showing resurgent interest in recent years after a long period of dormancy. This class of compounds has found broad applications such as reaction catalysts, organic strong bases, ligands for metal complexation, or versatile starting materials in organic synthesis for the preparation of nitrogen-containing heterocycles. Moreover, biguanides demonstrate a wide range of biological activities and some representatives are worldwide known such as metformin, the first-line treatment against type II diabetes, or chlorhexidine, the gold standard disinfectant and antiseptic. Although scarcely represented, the number of "success stories" with biguanide-containing compounds highlights their value and their unexploited potential as future drugs in various therapeutic fields or as efficient metal ligands. This review provides an extensive and critical overview of the synthetic accesses to biguanide compounds, as well as their comparative advantages and limitations. It also underlines the need of developing new synthetic methodologies to reach a wider variety of biguanides and to overcome the underrepresentation of these compounds.

Biguanides: Species with versatile therapeutic applications

Biguanides are compounds in which two guanidine moieties are fused to form a highly conjugated system. Biguanides are highly basic and hence they are available as salts mostly hydrochloride salts, these cationic species have been found to exhibit many therapeutic properties. This review covers the research and development carried out on biguanides and accounts the various therapeutic applications of drugs containing biguanide group-such as antimalarial, antidiabetic, antiviral, anticancer, antibacterial, antifungal, anti-tubercular, antifilarial, anti-HIV, as well as other biological activities. The aim of this review is to compile all the medicinal chemistry applications of this class of compounds so as to pave way for the accelerated efforts in finding the drug action mechanisms associated with this class of compounds. Importance has been given to the organic chemistry of these biguanide derivatives also.

Developments in strategies for Quorum Sensing virulence factor inhibition to combat bacterial drug resistance

Quorum sensing (QS) is a complex bacterial intercellular communication system. It is mediated by molecules called auto-inducers (AIs) and allows coordinated responses to a variety of environmental signals by inducing alterations in gene expression. Communication through QS can tremendously stimulate the pathogenicity and virulence via multiple mechanisms in pathogenic bacteria. The present review explores the major types of multitudinous QS systems known in Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria and their roles in bacterial pathogenesis and drug resistance. Because bacterial resistance to antibiotics is increasingly becoming a significant clinical challenge to human health; alternate strategies to combat drug resistance are warranted. Targeting bacterial pathogenicity by interruptions in QS using natural QS inhibitors and synthetic quorum-quenching analogs are being increasingly considered for development of next generation antimicrobials. The review highlights the recent advancements in discovery of promising new QS modulators and their efficiency in controlling infections caused by multidrug-resistant bacterial pathogens.

Quorum sensing inhibitory potential and in silico molecular docking of flavonoids and novel terpenoids from Senegalia nigrescens

ETHNOPHARMACOLOGICAL RELEVANCE

Senegalia nigrescens is used in traditional medicine for the treatment of dysentery and convulsions.

AIMS OF THE STUDY

This study was aimed at identifying bioactive compounds from S. nigrescens and carrying out in vitro and in silico anti-quorum sensing studies on the compounds.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Extracts of S. nigrescens were chromatographed repeatedly. The isolated compounds were characterised using NMR spectroscopy and mass spectrometry. The anti-quorum sensing potential of S. nigrescens crude extracts and selected phytochemicals was quantified using Chromobacterium violaceum quorum sensing-controlled violacein inhibition assays. Qualitative modulation of quorum sensing activity and signal synthesis was investigated using agar diffusion double ring assays and C. violaceum. Molecular docking was conducted to explore the binding conformations of ent-kaurene diterpenes and flavonoids into the binding sites of quorum sensing regulator proteins, CviR and CviR'.

RESULTS

Phytochemical investigation of S. nigrescens resulted in the isolation of a new ent-kaurene diterpenoid (ent-kaur-15-en-18,20-diol) alongside ent-kaur-15-en-18-ol, being isolated for the first time from a plant species. Other compounds isolated included 30-hydroxylup-20(29)-en-3β-ol, 3β-hydroxy-20(29)-en-lupan-30-al, lupeol, stigmasterol, a long chain alcohol (tetracosan-1-ol) and three flavonoids (melanoxetin, quercetin and quercetin-3-O-methyl ether). Structures of isolated compounds were elucidated using different spectroscopic techniques including 1D and 2D NMR. Inhibition of violacein production was concentration-dependent, with 56.52% inhibition being obtained with 200 µg of quercetin-3-O-methyl ether, while 53.38% inhibition was obtained with 600 µg of quercetin. Agar diffusion double ring assays indicated CviI synthase/CviR receptor modulation by S. nigrescens phytochemicals, suggesting that quorum signal synthesis was down-regulated and/or targeting binding of signal to the receptor. The computed binding energy data suggested that the flavonoids had a stronger tendency to inhibit both CviR and CviR' with varying binding affinities.

CONCLUSION

S. nigrescens crude extracts together with the novel ent-kaurenoids and flavonoids demonstrated potential anti-quorum sensing activity. S. nigrescens may thus represent a source of anti-quorum sensing therapeutic candidates for the control of existing and emerging infectious diseases.

In silico identification of albendazole as a quorum sensing inhibitor and its in vitro verification using CviR and LasB receptors based assay systems

Introduction:Quorum sensing inhibition (QSI) is one of the vital tools to overcome emerging virulence of pathogenic bacteria which aims at curbing bacterial resistance. Targeting QS (quorum sensing) as chemotherapy is less likely to generate resistance among pathogens as it targets only the adaptation and not the survival mechanism of the pathogen. Several QS inhibitors were developed in the recent past but none of them managed to have clinical application due to known toxic effects for human consumption. A rapid development of QS inhibitor drugs could be achieved by verification of the QSI activity of drugs which are already in clinical use with known pharmacology. Recently, a known FDA approved clinical drug niclosamide belonging to an anthelmintic class is found to exhibit QSI activity.

Methods: We have focused our study on Albendazole, another FDA approved clinical drug belonging to the same class for its potential to act as QSI. The structure-based molecular docking is used for finding putative interactions made by this drug with the CviR and LasB receptor protein of Chromobacterium violaceum and Pseudomonas aeruginosa , respectively. Further, the in vitro activity of this drug has been evaluated by employing CviR and LasB receptor-based bioassay. The efficacy of this drug alone and in combination with antibiotic Tobramycin to inhibit P. aeruginosa based biofilms was also analyzed by developing the biofilms on chambered glass slides and performing anti-biofilm assay.

Results: Further, this drug found to inhibit purple pigment violacein production in C. violaceum , which is under the control of C6-AHL-CviR mediated QS in this human pathogen. The in vivo bioassays results suggested that albendazole has great potential to act as a QS inhibitor as found inhibiting violacein production in C. violaceum and biofilm formation in P. aeruginosa , respectively.

Conclusion: It is that structure-based molecular docking guided bioassay evaluation is an efficient tool for finding the new therapeutic use of old drugs which could have more chances to come easily in clinical application for their newly identified therapeutic uses.

Molecular Insights into the Interaction of RONS and Thieno[3,2-c]pyran Analogs with SIRT6/COX-2: A Molecular Dynamics Study

SIRT6 and COX-2 are oncogenes target that promote the expression of proinflammatory and pro-survival proteins through a signaling pathway, which leads to increased survival and proliferation of tumor cells. However, COX-2 also suppresses skin tumorigenesis and their relationship with SIRT6, making it an interesting target for the discovery of drugs with anti-inflammatory and anti-cancer properties. Herein, we studied the interaction of thieno[3,2-c]pyran analogs and RONS species with SIRT6 and COX-2 through the use of molecular docking and molecular dynamic simulations. Molecular docking studies revealed the importance of hydrophobic and hydrophilic amino acid residues for the stability. The molecular dynamics study examined conformational changes in the enzymes caused by the binding of the substrates and how those changes affected the stability of the protein-drug complex. The average RMSD values of the backbone atoms in compounds 6 and 10 were calculated from 1000 ps to 10000 ps and were found to be 0.13 nm for both compounds. Similarly, the radius of gyration values for compounds 6 and 10 were found to be 1.87 ± 0.03 nm and 1.86 ± 0.02 nm, respectively. The work presented here, will be of great help in lead identification and optimization for early drug discovery.

Synthesis and biological evaluation of novel acyclic and cyclic glyoxamide based derivatives as bacterial quorum sensing and biofilm inhibitors

Bacteria regulate the expression of various virulence factors and processes such as biofilm formation through a chemically-mediated communication mechanism called quorum sensing. Bacterial biofilms contribute to antimicrobial resistance as they can protect bacteria embedded in their matrix from the effects of antibiotics. Thus, developing novel quorum sensing inhibitors, which can inhibit biofilm formation, is a viable strategy to combat antimicrobial resistance. We report herein the synthesis of novel acyclic and cyclic glyoxamide derivatives via ring-opening reactions of N-acylisatins. These compounds were evaluated for their quorum sensing inhibition activity against P. aeruginosa MH602 and E. coli MT102. Compounds 20, 21 and 30 displayed the greatest quorum sensing inhibition activity against P. aeruginosa MH602, with 71.5%, 71.5%, and 74% inhibition, respectively, at 250 μM. Compounds 18, 20 and 21 exhibited the greatest QSI activity against E. coli MT102, with 71.5%, 72.1% and 73.5% quorum sensing inhibition activity, respectively. In addition, the biofilm inhibition activity was also investigated against P. aeruginosa and E. coli at 250 μM. The glyoxamide compounds 16, 18 and 19 exhibited 71.2%, 66.9%, and 66.5% inhibition of P. aeruginosa biofilms, respectively; whereas compounds 12, 20, and 22 showed the greatest inhibitory activity against E. coli biofilms with 87.9%, 90.8% and 89.5%, respectively. Finally, the determination of the in vitro toxicity against human MRC-5 lung fibroblast cells revealed that these novel glyoxamide compounds are non-toxic to human cells.

Quorum sensing inhibitory potential and molecular docking studies of sesquiterpene lactones from Vernonia blumeoides

The increasing incidence of multidrug-resistant Gram-negative bacterial pathogens has focused research on the suppression of bacterial virulence via quorum sensing inhibition strategies, rather than the conventional antimicrobial approach. The anti-virulence potential of eudesmanolide sesquiterpene lactones previously isolated from Vernonia blumeoides was assessed by inhibition of quorum sensing and in silico molecular docking. Inhibition of quorum sensing-controlled violacein production in Chromobacterium violaceum was quantified using violacein inhibition assays. Qualitative modulation of quorum sensing activity and signal synthesis was investigated using agar diffusion double ring assays and C. violaceum and Agrobacterium tumefaciens biosensor systems. Inhibition of violacein production was concentration-dependent, with ⩾90% inhibition being obtained with ⩾2.4 mg ml(-1) of crude extracts. Violacein inhibition was significant for the ethyl acetate extract with decreasing inhibition being observed with dichloromethane, hexane and methanol extracts. Violacein inhibition ⩾80% was obtained with 0.071 mg ml(-1) of blumeoidolide B in comparison with ⩾3.6 mg ml(-1) of blumeoidolide A. Agar diffusion double ring assays indicated that only the activity of the LuxI synthase homologue, CviI, was modulated by blumeoidolides A and B, and V. blumeoides crude extracts, suggesting that quorum sensing signal synthesis was down-regulated or competitively inhibited. Finally, molecular docking was conducted to explore the binding conformations of sesquiterpene lactones into the binding sites of quorum sensing regulator proteins, CviR and CviR'. The computed binding energy data suggested that the blumeoidolides have a tendency to inhibit both CviR and CviR' with varying binding affinities. Vernonia eudesmanolide sesquiterpene lactones have the potential to be novel therapeutic agents, which might be important in reducing virulence and pathogenicity of drug-resistant bacteria in vivo.

Design, synthesis and evaluation of N-aryl-glyoxamide derivatives as structurally novel bacterial quorum sensing inhibitors

Bacteria cooperatively regulate the expression of many phenotypes through a mechanism called quorum sensing (QS).