Benzilydene and thiourea derivatives as new classes of carbonic anhydrase inhibitors: an in vitro and molecular docking study

2-Thioxo-3,4-dihydropyrimidine and thiourea endowed with sulfonamide moieties as dual EGFRT790M and VEGFR-2 inhibitors: Design, synthesis, docking, and anticancer evaluations

The effectiveness of a new series of thiopyrimidine and thiourea containing sulfonamides moieties was tested on HCT-116, MCF-7, HepG2, and A549. HepG2 cell line was the one that all the new derivatives affected the most. The greatest potent compounds against the four HepG2, HCT116, MCF-7, and A549 cell lines were 8f and 8g with IC50  = 4.13, 6.64, 5.74, 6.85 µM and 4.09, 4.36, 4.22, 7.25 µM correspondingly. Compound 8g exhibited higher activity than sorafenib against HCT116 and MCF-7 but exhibited lower activity against HepG2 and A549. Moreover, compounds 8f and 8g exhibited higher activities than erlotinib on HepG2, HCT116, and MCF-7 but demonstrated lower activity on A549. The most potent cytotoxic derivatives 6f, 6g, 8c, 8d, 8e, 8f, and 8g were examined on normal VERO cell lines. Our derivatives have low toxicity on VERO cells with IC50 values ranging from 32.05 to 53.15 μM. Additionally, all compounds were assessed for dual VEGFR-2 and EGFRT790M inhibition effects. Compounds 8f and 8g were the most potent derivatives inhibited VEGFR-2 at IC50 value of 0.88 and 0.90 µM, correspondingly. As well, derivatives 8f and 8g could inhibit EGFRT790M demonstrating strongest effects with IC50  = 0.32 and 0.33 µM sequentially. Additionally, the greatest active derivatives ADMET profile was evaluated in relationship with sorafenib and erlotinib as reference agents. The data attained from docking were greatly related to that achieved from the biological testing.

Pyrazole/pyrazoline as an excellent pharmacophore in the design of carbonic anhydrase inhibitors (2018-2022)

Carbonic anhydrase (CA) is a metalloenzyme that catalyzes the interconversion between carbon dioxide and water and dissociated ions of carbonic acid. In addition, CA performs various other functions in animals and plants, depending on the part of the living being. CAs have been found in almost all organisms. Besides, CAs are associated with several diseases, such as glaucoma, obesity, epilepsy, cancer, and so on. CAs are also involved in tumor cell growth and angiogenesis. Thus, inhibition of CA may be an attractive way of control of such diseases. Hence, CA inhibitors have been designed and developed to cure CA-associated diseases. Some examples of approved CA inhibitors are dorzolamide, methazolamide, brinzolamide, and dichlorphenamide. Furthermore, various heterocyclic scaffolds were utilized for the design of CA inhibitors. Among those, pyrazole/pyrazoline derivatives have exhibited greater potency toward CA inhibition. Hence, research that took place in the field of drug design and discovery of CA inhibition has been systematically reviewed and collated. Alongside, the structure-activity relationship has been described, followed by a description of the most potent molecules and their structural features.

Design and synthesis of some new benzoylthioureido phenyl derivatives targeting carbonic anhydrase enzymes

The present study aimed to develop potent carbonic anhydrase inhibitors (CAIs). The design of the target compounds was based on modifying the structure of the ureido-based carbonic anhydrase inhibitor SLC-0111. Six series of a substituted benzoylthioureido core were prepared featuring different zinc-binding groups; the conventional sulphamoyl group 4a-d and 12a-c, its bioisosteric carboxylic acid group 5a-d and 13a-c or the ethyl carboxylate group 6a-d and 14a-c as potential prodrugs. All compounds were assessed for their carbonic anhydrase (CA) inhibitory activity against a panel of four physiologically relevant human CA isoforms hCA I and hCA II, and hCA IX, and hCA XII. Compounds 4a, 4b, 4c, 4d, 5d, 12a, and 12c revealed significant inhibitory activity against hCA I that would highlight these compounds as promising drug candidates for the treatment of glaucoma.

Anticancer activity and QSAR study of sulfur-containing thiourea and sulfonamide derivatives

Sulfur-containing compounds are considered as attractive pharmacophores for discovery of new drugs regarding their versatile properties to interact with various biological targets. Quantitative structure-activity relationship (QSAR) modeling is one of well-recognized in silico tools for successful drug discovery. In this work, a set of 38 sulfur-containing derivatives (Types I–VI) were evaluated for their in vitro anticancer activities against 6 cancer cell lines. In vitro findings indicated that compound 13 was the most potent cytotoxic agent toward HuCCA-1 cell line (IC₅₀ = 14.47 μM). Compound 14 exhibited the most potent activities against 3 investigated cell lines (i.e., HepG2, A549, and MDA-MB-231: IC₅₀ range = 1.50–16.67 μM). Compound 10 showed the best activity for MOLT-3 (IC₅₀ = 1.20 μM) whereas compound 22 was noted for T47D (IC₅₀ = 7.10 μM). Subsequently, six QSAR models were built using multiple linear regression (MLR) algorithm. All constructed QSAR models provided reliable predictive performance (training sets: R_tr range = 0.8301–0.9636 and RMSE_tr = 0.0666–0.2680; leave-one-out cross validation sets: R_CV range = 0.7628–0.9290 and RMSE_CV = 0.0926–0.3188). From QSAR modeling, chemical properties such as mass, polarizability, electronegativity, van der Waals volume, octanol-water partition coefficient, as well as frequency/presence of C–N, F–F, and N–N bonds in the molecule are essential key predictors for anticancer activities of the compounds. In summary, a series of promising fluoro-thiourea derivatives (10, 13, 14, 22) were suggested as potential molecules for future development as anticancer agents. Key structure-activity knowledge obtained from the QSAR modeling was suggested to be advantageous for suggesting the effective rational design of the related sulfur-containing anticancer compounds with improved bioactivities and properties.