Inhibition of cancer cell growth and migration by dihydroxynaphthyl aryl ketones

Discovery of New 2-Phenylamino-3-acyl-1,4-naphthoquinones as Inhibitors of Cancer Cells Proliferation: Searching for Intra-Cellular Targets Playing a Role in Cancer Cells Survival

A series of 2-phenylamino-3-acyl-1,4-naphtoquinones were evaluated regarding their in vitro antiproliferative activities using DU-145, MCF-7 and T24 cancer cells. Such activities were discussed in terms of molecular descriptors such as half-wave potentials, hydrophobicity and molar refractivity. Compounds 4 and 11 displayed the highest antiproliferative activity against the three cancer cells and were therefore further investigated. The in silico prediction of drug likeness, using pkCSM and SwissADME explorer online, shows that compound 11 is a suitable lead molecule to be developed. Moreover, the expressions of key genes were studied in DU-145 cancer cells. They include genes involved in apoptosis (Bcl-2), tumor metabolism regulation (mTOR), redox homeostasis (GSR), cell cycle regulation (CDC25A), cell cycle progression (TP53), epigenetic (HDAC4), cell-cell communication (CCN2) and inflammatory pathways (TNF). Compound 11 displays an interesting profile because among these genes, mTOR was significantly less expressed as compared to control conditions. Molecular docking shows that compound 11 has good affinity with mTOR, unraveling a potential inhibitory effect on this protein. Due to the key role of mTOR on tumor metabolism, we suggest that impaired DU-145 cells proliferation by compound 11 is caused by a reduced mTOR expression (less mTOR protein) and inhibitory activity on mTOR protein.

Inhibition of Escherichia coli and Bacillus subtilis FtsZ Polymerization and Bacillus subtilis Growth by Dihydroxynaphtyl Aryl Ketones

The increasing detection of virulent and/or multidrug resistant bacterial strains makes necessary the development of new antimicrobial agents acting through novel mechanisms and cellular targets. A good choice are molecules aimed to interfere with the cell division machinery or divisome, which is indispensable for bacterial survival and propagation. A key component of this machinery, and thus a good target, is FtsZ, a highly conserved GTPase protein that polymerizes in the middle of the cell on the inner face of the cytoplasmic membrane forming the Z ring, which acts as a scaffold for the recruitment of the divisome proteins at the division site. In this work, we tested the inhibitory effect of five diaryl naphtyl ketone (dNAK) molecules on the in vitro polymerization of both Escherichia coli and Bacillus subtilis FtsZ (EcFtsZ and BsFtsZ, respectively). Among these compounds, dNAK 4 showed the strongest inhibition of FtsZ polymerization in vitro, with an IC₅₀ of 2.3 ± 0.06 μM for EcFtsZ and 9.13 ± 0.66 μM for BsFtsZ. We found that dNAK 4 binds to GDP-FtsZ polymers but not to the monomer in GTP or GDP state. This led to the polymerization of short and curved filaments, rings, open rings forming clusters, and in the case of BsFtsZ, a novel cylindrical structure of stacked open rings. In vivo, dNAK 4 had almost no effect on the growth of E. coli in liquid culture, in contrast to the strong inhibitory effect observed over B. subtilis growth. The insensitivity of E. coli to this compound is probably related to the impermeability of dNAK 4 to the outer membrane. The low amount of this compound required to inhibit several of the bacterial strains tested and the lack of a cytotoxic effect at the concentrations used, makes dNAK 4 a very good candidate as a starting molecule for the development of a new antibiotic.

The therapeutic effects of Yongdamsagan-tang on autoimmune hepatitis models

Autoimmune hepatitis (AIH) is an immunity disorder that is the result of antibodies in the liver tissue of the patient that are attacked by activated immune cells due to an unknown cause. In this study, we aimed to investigate the anti-inflammatory effect of Yongdamsagan-tang (YST) extracts and confirm effects on autoimmune hepatitis models as the therapeutic agent using the YST extracted by various solvents. YST, a mixture of 11 herbal extracts, is known in traditional Korean medicine as a widely used treatment for inflammatory diseases. We proposed the AIH-condition in vitro model by the addition of recombinant IL-17A and then observed several markers linked to AIH symptoms, including an increase of IL-6 expression, lipid accumulation, and fibrosis. In AIH-condition hepatic cell model, YST reduced IL-6 expression and lipid accumulation caused by treatment of IL-17 combination in hepatocyte cells. Also, YST blocked several activated fibrosis factors including transforming growth factor-β (TGF- β1), collagen type 1 (Col-α1(I)), and α-smooth muscle actin (α-SMA) in liver stellate cells. Furthermore, pretreatment with YST protected hepatic damage and reduces histological injury by suppressing apoptosis mediator and inflammatory cytokines expression in concanavalin A (Con A)-induced autoimmune hepatitis mice model. The findings here improve our understanding of YST extracted by 80% ethanol, suggesting that YST can be used as a therapeutic treatment for AIH.