Quinazoline-4(3H)-one derivatives as novel and potent inhibitors of soluble epoxide hydrolase: Design, synthesis and biological evaluation

A Comprehensive Review of Recent Advances in the Biological Activities of Quinazolines

Quinazoline heterocycles are critical in the development of medications. Quinazoline derivatives have been intensively researched, providing a wide range of compounds with diverse biological roles. The quinazoline nucleus has garnered a lot of attention in medical chemistry in recent years. It was assumed to be a pharmacophore component in the development of physiologically interesting drugs. This review is an attempt to increase the potential of quinazoline by highlighting a wide range of advancements demonstrated by numerous derivatives of the quinazoline moiety, as well as focusing on diverse pharmacological actions of the quinazoline moiety. This review compiles recent studies on the quinazoline moiety described in the literature by researchers.

Boosting the Discovery of Small Molecule Inhibitors of Glucose-6-Phosphate Dehydrogenase for the Treatment of Cancer, Infectious Diseases, and Inflammation

We present an overview of small molecule glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PD) inhibitors that have potential for use in the treatment of cancer, infectious diseases, and inflammation. Both steroidal and nonsteroidal inhibitors have been identified with steroidal inhibitors lacking target selectivity. The main scaffolds encountered in nonsteroidal inhibitors are quinazolinones and benzothiazinones/benzothiazepinones. Three molecules show promise for development as antiparasitic (25 and 29) and anti-inflammatory (32) agents. Regarding modality of inhibition (MOI), steroidal inhibitors have been shown to be uncompetitive and reversible. Nonsteroidal small molecules have exhibited all types of MOI. Strategies to boost the discovery of small molecule G6PD inhibitors include exploration of structure-activity relationships (SARs) for established inhibitors, employment of high-throughput screening (HTS), and fragment-based drug discovery (FBDD) for the identification of new hits. We discuss the challenges and gaps associated with drug discovery efforts of G6PD inhibitors from in silico, in vitro, and in cellulo to in vivo studies.

Recent Developments on the Synthesis and Biological Activities of Fused Pyrimidinone Derivatives

Heterocyclic compounds constitute a unique class of organic compounds endowed with a wide range of synthetic and pharmaceutical applications. Pyrimidinones and their fused analogues have received focused attention in this regard, partly due to their mimicry of nucleobases which consequently forges their interesting medicinal properties. Over the years, the medicinal chemistry research community has experienced an upsurge in articles describing the exploration of these scaffolds to develop effective therapeutic agents. Several biological activities, including antimicrobial, antiviral, anticancer, antidiabetic, anti-inflammatory, anticonvulsive, and antihistaminic, have been well documented. This minireview presents a compendium of recent developments (2017-2020) focused on the synthesis and biological activities of fused pyrimidinones. The goal is to update medicinal chemists on the therapeutic relevance of fused pyrimidinones and the molecular architecture of clinic-worthy drug candidates. A brief account of the structure-activity relationships (SAR) revealed from different biological assays is also discussed.

Discovery of novel heterocyclic amide-based inhibitors: an integrative in-silico approach to targeting soluble epoxide hydrolase

Inhibition of soluble epoxide hydrolase (sEH) is considered as an emerging druggable target to reduce blood pressure, improve insulin sensitivity, and decrease inflammation. Despite the availability of different classes of sEH small molecule inhibitors for the potential treatment of hypertension, only a few candidates have reached clinical trials, making the optimal control of blood pressure presently unattainable. This necessity motivated us to explore a series of novel quinazoline-4(3H)-one and 4,6-disubstituted pyridin-2(1H)-one derivatives targeting sEH enzyme. Herein, comprehensive computational investigations were performed to probe the inhibition efficacy of these potent compounds in terms of inhibitor-enzyme interactions against sEH. In this study, the 39 in-house with a focused library comprising 39 in-house synthesized compounds were selected. The structure-based pharmacophore modeling was developed based on the crystal structure of sEH with its co-crystallized biologically active inhibitor. The generated hypotheses were applied for virtual screening-based PHASE fitness scores. Docking-based virtual screening workflows were used to generate lead compounds using HTVS, SP and XP based GLIDE G-score values. The candidate leads were filtered using ADMET pharmacological and physicochemical properties screening. A 100-ns of molecular dynamics simulations with Molecular dynamics simulations (100 ns) were performed to explore the binding affinities of the considered compounds. Our study identified four best candidates from quinazoline-4(3H)-one derivatives, which indicated that a quinazolinone ring serves as a suitable scaffold to develop novel small molecule sEH inhibitors.

Synthesis and Biological Evaluation of Three New Chitosan Schiff Base Derivatives

Recently, chemical modifications of chitosan (CS) have attracted the attention of scientific researchers due to its wide range of applications. In this research, chitin (CH) was extracted from the scales of Cyprinus carpio fish and converted to CS by three chemical steps: (i) demineralization, (ii) deprotonation, and (iii) deacetylation. The degree (measured as a percentage) of deacetylation (DD %) was calculated utilizing the acid-base titration method. The structure of CS was characterized by Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). Three new CS Schiff bases (CSSBs) (CS-P1, CS-P2, and CS-P3) were synthesized via coupling of CS with 2-chloroquinoline-3-carbaldehyde, quinazoline-6-carbaldehyde, and oxazole-4-carbaldehyde, respectively. The newly prepared derivatives were verified, structurally, by nuclear magnetic resonance (¹H and ¹³C NMR) and FT-IR spectroscopy. Antimicrobial activity was evaluated for the prepared compounds against both "Gram-negative" and "Gram-positive" bacteria, namely, Escherichia coli, Klebsiella pneumonia, Staphylococcus aureus, and Streptococcus mutans, in addition to two kinds of fungi, Candida albicans and Aspergillus fumigates. Cytotoxicity of the synthesized CSSBs was evaluated via a MTT screening test. The results indicated a critical activity increase of the synthesized compound rather than CS generally tested bacteria and fungi and the absence of cytotoxic activity. These findings suggested that these new CSSBs are novel biomaterial candidates with enhanced antibacterial and nontoxic characteristics for applications in areas of both biology and medicine.