Anticancer and antimicrobial activities of new thiazolyl-urea derivatives: gene expression, DNA damage, DNA fragmentation and SAR studies

Design, synthesis and potent anti-pancreatic cancer activity of new pyrazole derivatives bearing chalcone, thiazole and thiadiazole moieties: gene expression, DNA fragmentation, cell cycle arrest and SAR

Less than 5% of pancreatic cancer patients survive for more than five years after diagnosis. Therefore, there is an urgent need for novel therapeutic drugs to treat pancreatic cancer. Herein, we report the synthesis and full characterization of fifteen novel pyrazole derivatives bearing chalcone (4-10), thiazole (16-19) and thiadiazole (23-26) moieties. All the newly synthesized pyrazole derivatives were tested in vitro as anti-cancer agents against pancreatic cancer (PaCa-2), breast cancer (MCF-7), prostate cancer (PC3), and normal cell lines (BJ1). Three pyrazolyl-chalcone derivatives (4, 5, and 7) and a pyrazolyl-thiadiazole derivative (25) showed potent anti-cancer activity against the PaCa-2 cell line with IC50 values of 13.0, 31.5, 24.9, and 5.5 μg mL-1, respectively, compared with doxorubicin (IC50 = 28.3 μg mL-1). Compound 25 showed potent anti-cancer activity against the PC3 cell line with an IC50 value of 11.8 μg mL-1. In contrast, compounds 4, 5 and 7 are safer against the normal human-cell line (BJ1) with IC50 values of 74.2, 76.6 and 81.1 μg mL-1, respectively, compared with compound 25, which has an IC50 value of 23.7 μg mL-1. The mechanism of action of compounds 4, 5 and 7 against pancreatic cancer cells was studied by investigating gene expression, DNA fragmentation, comet assay and flow cytometry experiments using doxorubicin as a reference drug. Moreover, the structure-activity relationship between the structures of these compounds and their biological properties was discussed.

Evaluation of Pyrazolyl-Indolizine Derivatives as Antimicrobial Agents: Synthesis, In vitro, In silico ADMET and Molecular Docking Studies

Herein, we report analogues of s-indacene by the synthesis of novel indolizine derivatives. Using chloroform as an appropriate solvent, sixteen derivatives of pyrazolyl-indolizine (4--19) were prepared by the reaction of 3-(dimethylamino)-1-(1H-pyrrol-2-yl)prop-2-en-1-one (1) with hydrazonoyl chloride derivatives (2) in the presence of triethylamine in good to excellent yields. We used NMR spectra, IR, mass spectrometry, as well as elemental analyses to prove the chemical structures and the purity of the synthesized compounds 4-19. Among all tested compounds 5, 9, 13 and 19 had a potent antimicrobial efficiency against Bacillus subtilis, Staphylococcus aureus, Pseudomonas aerginousea, Sallmonella typhemerium, and Candida albicans. Furthermore, a significant increase in lipid peroxidation (LPO) toward the Gram-negative bacteria, Pseudomonas aeruginosa when treated with compound 9 was observed, while compound 13 remarkably increased the cell membrane oxidation of Salmonella typhimurium. Additionally, we utilized docking studies and in silico methods to evaluate the drug-likeness, physicochemical properties, and ADMET profiles of the compounds. The results of the molecular docking simulation revealed that the synthesized compounds displayed decreased binding energy when interacting with the active sites of important enzymes, including Sterol 14-demethylase of C. albicans, Dihydropteroate synthase of S. aureus, LasR of P. aeruginosa, Glucosamine-6-phosphate synthase of S. typhimurium, and Gyrase B of B. subtilis.

Synthesis, anticancer evaluation of novel hybrid pyrazole-based chalcones, molecular docking, DNA fragmentation, and gene expression: in vitro studies

A unique series of pyrazolyl-chalcone derivatives was synthesized via the method of Claisen-Schmidt condensation. The desired chalcone derivatives 7a-d and 9a-f were obtained in good yields by reacting the 4-acetyl-5-thiophene-pyrazole with the appropriate heteroaryl aldehyde derivatives. The novel chalcones have undergone complete elemental analysis, 1H-NMR, 13C-NMR, mass spectrometry, and IR characterization. The three human cancer cell lines MCF7 (human Caucasian breast adenocarcinoma), PC3 (prostatic cancer) and PACA2 (pancreatic carcinoma) as well as the normal cell line BJ1 (normal skin fibroblasts) were tested in vitro for the anti-cancer properties of the newly synthesized chalcone derivatives. When compared to the reference medicine doxorubicin (IC50 = 52.1 μM), compound 9e showed the most promise derivative (IC50 = 27.6 μM) against PACA2 cells, while compound 7d demonstrated anticancer efficacy (IC50 = 42.6 μM against MCF7 cells compared to the reference drug doxorubicin (IC50 = 48 μM). Using breast and pancreatic cell lines, the gene expression, DNA damage, and DNA fragmentation percentages for compounds 7d and 9e were evaluated. Moreover, the molecular docking study of compounds 7d and 9e was assessed. The binding affinities of compound 9e toward P53 mutant Y220C was -22 kcal per mole, while those of compound 7d towards Bcl2 and CDK4 were -27.81 and -26.9 kcal per mole, respectively, compared to the standard values (-15.82, -33.96 and -29.9 kcal per mole).

Green, facile synthesis and evaluation of unsymmetrical carbamide derivatives as antimicrobial and anticancer agents with mechanistic insights

A very practical method for the synthesis of unsymmetrical carbamide derivatives in good to excellent yield was presented, without the need for any catalyst and at room temperature. Using a facile and robust protocol, fifteen unsymmetrical carbamide derivatives (9-23) bearing different aliphatic amine moieties were designed and synthesized by the reaction of secondary aliphatic amines with isocyanate derivatives in the presence of acetonitrile as an appropriate solvent in good to excellent yields. Trusted instruments like IR, mass spectrometry, NMR spectra, and elemental analyses were employed to validate the purity and chemical structures of the synthesized compounds. All the synthesized compounds were tested as antimicrobial agents against some clinically bacterial pathogens such as Salmonella typhimurium, Bacillus subtilis, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Staphylococcus aureus and Candida albicans. Compounds 15, 16, 17, 19 and 22 showed potent antimicrobial activity with promising MIC values compared to the positive controls. Moreover, compounds 15 and 22 provide a potent lipid peroxidation (LPO) of the bacterial cell wall. On the other hand, we investigated the anti-proliferative activity of compounds 9-23 against selected human cancerous cell lines of breast (MCF-7), colon (HCT-116), and lung (A549) relative to healthy noncancerous control skin fibroblast cells (BJ-1). The mechanism of their cytotoxic activity has been also examined by immunoassaying the levels of key anti- and pro-apoptotic protein markers. The results of MTT assay revealed that compounds 10, 13, 21, 22 and 23 possessed highly cytotoxic effects. Out of these, three synthesized compounds 13, 21 and 22 showed cytotoxicity with IC50 values (13, IC50 = 62.4 ± 0.128 and 22, IC50 = 91.6 ± 0.112 µM, respectively, on MCF-7), (13, IC50 = 43.5 ± 0.15 and 21, IC50 = 38.5 ± 0.17 µM, respectively, on HCT-116). Cell cycle and apoptosis/necrosis assays demonstrated that compounds 13 and 22 induced S and G2/M phase cell cycle arrest in MCF-7 cells, while only compound 13 had this effect on HCT-116 cells. Furthermore, compound 13 exhibited the greatest potency in inducing apoptosis in both cell lines compared to compounds 21 and 22. Docking studies indicated that compounds 10, 13, 21 and 23 could potentially inhibit enzymes and exert promising antimicrobial effects, as evidenced by their lower binding energies and various types of interactions observed at the active sites of key enzymes such as Sterol 14-demethylase of C. albicans, Dihydropteroate synthase of S. aureus, LasR of P. aeruginosa, Glucosamine-6-phosphate synthase of K. pneumenia and Gyrase B of B. subtilis. Moreover, 13, 21, and 22 demonstrated minimal binding energy and favorable affinity towards the active pocket of anticancer receptor proteins, including CDK2, EGFR, Erα, Topoisomerase II and VEGFFR. Physicochemical properties, drug-likeness, and ADME (absorption, distribution, metabolism, excretion, and toxicity) parameters of the selected compounds were also computed.

Design, synthesis, structure elucidation, antimicrobial, molecular docking, and SAR studies of novel urea derivatives bearing tricyclic aromatic hydrocarbon rings

The targeted compounds were prepared using both (9H-fluoren-9-ylidene)hydrazine (1) and 10H-phenothiazine (2) as starting materials. The treatment of 1 or 2 with different isocyanates afforded the title compounds 7a-d, 8a, and 8b in excellent yield. All compounds were characterized and ascertained by infrared, nuclear magnetic resonance, and elemental analyses as well as single-crystal X-ray diffraction. The antimicrobial efficiency of all was tested in vitro, and a noticeable inhibition activity against Bacillus subtilis, Staphylococcus aureus, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Klebsiella pneumoniae, and Candida albicans was obtained by compounds 7a, 7b, 8a, and 8b. Moreover, the biofilm mechanism activity was strongly inhibited by compounds 7b and 8b for all bacterial pathogens, with a percentage ratio of more than 55%. The findings from the molecular docking simulation revealed that compounds 7a, 7b, 8a, and 8b exhibited favorable binding energies and interacted effectively with the active sites of sterol 14-demethylase, dihydropteroate synthase, gyrase B, LasR (major transcriptional activator of P. aeruginosa), and carbapenemase for C. albicans, S. aureus, B. subtills, K. pneumoniae, and P. aeruginosa, respectively. These results suggest that the compounds have the potential to inhibit the activity of these enzymes and demonstrate promising antimicrobial properties. Moreover, the in silico evaluation of drug likeness and absorption, distribution, metabolism, excretion, and toxicity (ADMET) profiles for compounds 7a, 7b, 8a, and 8b demonstrated their compatibility with Lipinski's, Ghose's, Veber's, Muegge's, and Egan's rules. These findings suggest that these compounds possess favorable physicochemical properties, making them promising candidates for continued drug development efforts.

Biogenic selenium nanoparticles and selenium/chitosan-Nanoconjugate biosynthesized by Streptomyces parvulus MAR4 with antimicrobial and anticancer potential

BACKGROUND

As antibiotics and chemotherapeutics are no longer as efficient as they once were, multidrug resistant (MDR) pathogens and cancer are presently considered as two of the most dangerous threats to human life. In this study, Selenium nanoparticles (SeNPs) biosynthesized by Streptomyces parvulus MAR4, nano-chitosan (NCh), and their nanoconjugate (Se/Ch-nanoconjugate) were suggested to be efficacious antimicrobial and anticancer agents.

RESULTS

SeNPs biosynthesized by Streptomyces parvulus MAR4 and NCh were successfully achieved and conjugated. The biosynthesized SeNPs were spherical with a mean diameter of 94.2 nm and high stability. Yet, Se/Ch-nanoconjugate was semispherical with a 74.9 nm mean diameter and much higher stability. The SeNPs, NCh, and Se/Ch-nanoconjugate showed significant antimicrobial activity against various microbial pathogens with strong inhibitory effect on their tested metabolic key enzymes [phosphoglucose isomerase (PGI), pyruvate dehydrogenase (PDH), glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PDH) and nitrate reductase (NR)]; Se/Ch-nanoconjugate was the most powerful agent. Furthermore, SeNPs revealed strong cytotoxicity against HepG2 (IC50 = 13.04 μg/ml) and moderate toxicity against Caki-1 (HTB-46) tumor cell lines (IC50 = 21.35 μg/ml) but low cytotoxicity against WI-38 normal cell line (IC50 = 85.69 μg/ml). Nevertheless, Se/Ch-nanoconjugate displayed substantial cytotoxicity against HepG2 and Caki-1 (HTB-46) with IC50 values of 11.82 and 7.83 μg/ml, respectively. Consequently, Se/Ch-nanoconjugate may be more easily absorbed by both tumor cell lines. However, it exhibited very low cytotoxicity on WI-38 with IC50 of 153.3 μg/ml. Therefore, Se/Ch-nanoconjugate presented the most anticancer activity.

CONCLUSION

The biosynthesized SeNPs and Se/Ch-nanoconjugate are convincingly recommended to be used in biomedical applications as versatile and potent antimicrobial and anticancer agents ensuring notable levels of biosafety, environmental compatibility, and efficacy.

Impact of trifluoromethyl and sulfonyl groups on the biological activity of novel aryl-urea derivatives: synthesis, in-vitro, in-silico and SAR studies

We designed and prepared a novel series of urea derivatives with/without sulfonyl group in their structures to investigate the impact of the sulfonyl group on the biological activity of the evaluated compounds. Antibacterial investigations indicated that derivatives 7, 8, 9, and 11 had the most antibacterial property of all the compounds examined, their minimum inhibitory concentrations (MICs) determined against B. mycoides, E. coli, and C. albicans, with compound 8 being the most active at a MIC value of 4.88 µg/mL. Anti-cancer activity has been tested against eight human cancer cell lines; A549, HCT116, PC3, A431, HePG2, HOS, PACA2 and BJ1. Compounds 7, 8 and 9 emerged IC50 values better than Doxorubicin as a reference drug. Compounds 7 and 8 showed IC50 = 44.4 and 22.4 μM respectively against PACA2 compared to Doxorubicin (IC50 = 52.1 μM). Compound 9 showed IC50 = 17.8, 12.4, and 17.6 μM against HCT116, HePG2, and HOS, respectively. qRT-PCR revealed the down-regulation of PALB2 in compounds 7 and 15 treated PACA2 cells. Also, the down-regulation of BRCA1 and BRCA2 was shown in compound 7 treated PC3 cells. As regard A549 cells, compound 8 decreased the expression level of EGFR and KRAS genes. While compounds 7 and 9 down-regulated TP53 and FASN in HCT116 cells. Molecular docking was done against Escherichia coli enoyl reductase and human Son of sevenless homolog 1 (SOS1) and the results showed the promising inhibition of the studied proteins.

Design, synthesis, in vitro anticancer, molecular docking and SAR studies of new series of pyrrolo[2,3-d]pyrimidine derivatives

The current study involves the design and synthesis of a newly synthesized pyrrolo[2,3-d]pyrimidine derivatives to contain chlorine atoms in positions 4 and 6 and trichloromethyl group in position 2 using microwave technique as a new and robust approach for preparation of this type of pyrrolo[2,3-d]pyrimidine derivatives. The chemical structure of the synthesized pyrrolo[2,3-d]pyrimidine derivatives 3-19 was well-characterized using spectral and elemental analyses as well as single-crystal X-ray diffraction. All compounds were tested in vitro against seven selected human cancer cell lines, namely, MCF7, A549, HCT116, PC3, HePG2, PACA2 and BJ1 using MTT assay. It was found that compounds 14a, 16b and 18b were the most active toward MCF7 with IC50 (1.7, 5.7, and 3.4 μg/ml, respectively) relative to doxorubicin (Dox.) (26.1 μg/ml). Additionally, compound 17 exerted promising cytotoxic effects against HePG2 and PACA2 with IC50 (8.7 and 6.4 μg/ml, respectively) relative to Dox. (21.6 and 28.3 μg/ml, respectively). The molecular docking study confirmed our ELISA result which showed the promising binding affinities of compounds 14a and 17 against Bcl2 anti-apoptotic protein. At the gene expression level, P53, BAX, DR4 and DR5 were up-regulated, while Bcl2, Il-8, and CDK4 were down-regulated in 14a, 14b and 18b treated MCF7 cells. At the protein level, compound 14b increased the activity of Caspase 8 and BAX (18.263 and 14.25 pg/ml) relative to Dox. (3.99 and 4.92 pg/ml, respectively), while the activity of Bcl2 was greatly decreased in 14a treated MCF7 (2.4 pg/ml) compared with Dox. (14.37 pg/ml). Compounds 14a and 14b caused cell cycle arrest at the G1/S phase in MCF7. Compounds 16b and 18b induced the apoptotic death of MCF7 cells. In addition, the percentage of fragmented DNA was increased significantly in 14a treated MCF7 cells.

Exploring the Mystery of the Tetrahydrobiopterin Synthetic Defect Lethal Mutant leml from Birth to Death in the Silkworm Bombyx mori

Tetrahydrobiopterin (BH4) is a vital coenzyme for several enzymes involved in diverse enzymatic reactions in animals, and BH4 deficiency can lead to metabolic and neurological disorders due to dysfunction in its metabolism. In the silkworm natural homozygous mutant lem^l, the key enzyme sepiapterin reductase (BmSPR) in the de novo synthesis pathway of BH4 is inactivated, resulting in severe deficiency of BH4 synthesis. However, it is not known why the lem^l larvae can survive to the second-instar stage and which pathways lead to their death when BH4 is deficient. Here, we quantified BH4 and found that the fertilized eggs contained large amounts of BH4 transferred from the mother to the offspring, maintaining its normal development in the embryo and the first instar. Subsequently, we investigated the multiple pathways in which BH4 is involved as a cofactor. The results showed that BH4 deficiency in silkworms blocked the melanin synthesis pathway, caused an insufficient degree of epidermal sclerosis, disordered tyrosine metabolism, and damaged mitochondria. On the other hand, BH4 deficiency led to the uncoupling of nitric oxide synthase (BmNOS), a reduced NO production, and a significantly reduced fat in fat body catalyzation by phospholipase A2, resulting in an impaired immune system. Meanwhile, the uncoupling of BmNOS increased the O₂⁻ content, damaged the DNA, and caused the apoptosis of the body cells. Taken together, BH4 is critical for the life and death of lem^l mutants. This study lays a foundation for the further exploration of lepidopteran insects and provides an important basis for the treatment of human BH4 deficiency-related diseases.

Synthesis and biological evaluation of new 1,3,4-thiadiazole derivatives as potent antimicrobial agents

A series of 1,3,4-thiadiazole derivatives were designed and synthesized using N-(4-nitrophenyl)acetohydrazonoyl bromide and 1-[3,5-dimethyl-1-(4-nitrophenyl)-1H-pyrazol-4-yl]ethan-1-one as starting materials. The treatment of 1-[3,5-dimethyl-1-(4-nitrophenyl)-1H-pyrazol-4-yl]ethan-1-one with methyl hydrazinecarbodithioate or hydrazinecarbothioamide afforded 2-[1-[5-methyl-1-(4-nitrophenyl)-1H-pyrazol-4-yl]ethylidene]hydrazine derivatives. The targeted 1,3,4-thiadiazolyl derivatives were prepared by the reaction of 2-[1-[5-methyl-1-(4-nitrophenyl)-1H-pyrazol-4-yl]ethylidene]hydrazine derivatives with hydrazonoyl chloride derivatives. The reaction of N-(4-nitrophenyl)acetohydrazonoyl bromide with 2-[(methylthio)carbonthioyl]hydrazones in absolute ethanol in the presence of triethylamine afforded the corresponding 1,3,4-thiadiazole derivatives. The newly synthesized compounds were fully characterized by 1H NMR, 13C NMR, IR, MS, and elemental analysis. Moreover, the antimicrobial activity of the synthesized 1,3,4-thiadiazole derivatives were tested against E. coli, B. mycoides, and C. albicans. Four compounds outperformed the other produced compounds in terms of antimicrobial activity.

Graphical abstract