A novel series of potent cytotoxic agents targeting G2/M phase of the cell cycle and demonstrating cell killing by apoptosis in human breast cancer cells

C3-Symmetric ligands in drug design: An overview of the challenges and opportunities ahead

C3-symmetry is a type of star-shaped molecule consisting of a central core and three symmetrically attached chains. These molecules are used in drug discovery due to their unique three-fold rotational symmetry, which allows for specific binding interactions and improved molecular recognition. In this text, we provide an overview of synthetic approaches with C3-symmetry as a pharmaceutical tool: progress, challenges, and opportunities. C3-symmetric ligands offer both challenges and opportunities in drug design. Their unique symmetry can enhance binding interactions, but careful consideration of rigidity, synthetic complexity, and target compatibility is crucial. Further research and advancements in synthetic methods and modeling tools will likely drive their exploration in drug discovery, leading to the discovery of potent C3-symmetric ligands.

Divergent Synthesis of α-(1,3,5-Triazinylthio)-ketones and Thiazolo[3,2-a][1,3,5]triazines from 1,3-Dicarbonyl compounds or Chalcones with 1,3,5-Triazine-2-thiols

An efficient synthesis of α-(1,3,5-triazinylthio)-ketones from 1,3-dicarbonyl compounds with 1,3,5-triazine-2-thiols has been developed. The reaction proceeds through the C-C bond cleavage and C-S bond reconstruction of 1,3-dicarbonyl compounds, and β-keto esters, β-keto amides, and 1,3-diones were tolerated. In addition, the annulation of 1,3,5-triazine-2-thiols with chalcones has been achieved for the synthesis of thiazolo[3,2-a][1,3,5]triazines. The method occurred in moderate to good yields and tolerated chalcone with a broad functional group.

State of the Art in the Preparation and Properties of Molecular Monomeric s-Heptazines: Syntheses, Characteristics, and Functional Applications

This review gives an account on the fast expanding field of monomeric (or molecular) heptazines, at the exclusion of their various polymeric forms, often referred to as carbon nitrides. While examples of monomeric heptazines were extremely limited until the beginning of this century, the field has started expanding quickly since then, as has the number of reports on polymeric materials, though previous reviews did not separate these fields. We provide here a detailed report on the synthetic procedures for molecular heptazines. We also extensively report on the different achievements realized from these new molecules, in the fields of physical chemistry, spectroscopy, materials preparation, (photo)catalysis, and devices. After a comprehensive summary and discussion on heptazines syntheses and characteristics, we show that starting from well-defined molecules allows a versatility of approaches and a wide tunability of the expected properties. It comes out that the field of monomeric heptazines is now emerging and possibly heading toward maturity, while diverging from the one of polymeric carbon nitrides. It is likely that this area of research will quickly surge to the forefront of the search for active organic molecules, with special attention to the domains of catalysis and organic-based functional materials and devices.

Synthesis and cellular effects of novel 1,3,5-triazine derivatives in DLD and Ht-29 human colon cancer cell lines

This study provides new information on the cellular effects of 1,3,5-triazine nitrogen mustards with different peptide groups in DLD and Ht-29 human colon cancer cell lines. A novel series of 2,4,6-trisubstituted 1,3,5-triazine derivatives bearing 2-chloroethyl and oligopeptide moieties was designed and synthesized. The most cytotoxic derivative was triazine with an Ala-Ala-OMe substituent on the ring (compound 7b). This compound induced time- and dose-dependent cytotoxicity in the DLD-1 and HT-29 colon cancer cell lines. The triazine derivative furthermore induced apoptosis through intracellular signaling pathway attenuation. Compound 7b may be a candidate for further evaluation as a chemotherapeutic agent against colorectal cancer.

The cellular effects of novel triazine nitrogen mustards in glioblastoma LBC3, LN-18 and LN-229 cell lines

1,3,5-triazine is an important heterocyclic skeleton for mono, two or three 2-chloroethylamine groups. The study presented here provides novel information on cellular effects of 1,3,5-triazine with mono, two or three 2-chloroethylamine groups in glioblastoma LBC3, LN-18 and LN-229 cell lines. In our study, the most cytotoxic effect was observed in 1,3,5-triazine with three 2-chloroethylamine groups (12f compound). It has been demonstrated that 12f induce time- and dose-dependent cytotoxicity in all investigated glioma cell lines. Apart from that in glioblastoma cells, treated with 12f compound, we noticed strong induction of apoptosis. In conclusion, this research provides novel information concerning cellular effects of apoptosis in LBC3, LN-18 and LN-229 cell lines. Moreover, we suggest that 12f compound may be a candidate for further evaluation as an effective chemotherapeutic agent for human glioblastoma cells.

Therapeutic Potential of Nitrogen Mustard Based Hybrid Molecules

As medicine advances, cancer is still among one of the major health problems, posing significant threats to human health. New anticancer agents features with novel scaffolds and/or unique mechanisms of action are highly desirable for the treatment of cancers, especially those highly aggressive and drug-resistant ones. Nitrogen mustard has been widely used as an anticancer drug since the discovery of its antitumor effect in the 1942. However, the lack of selectivity to cancer cells restricts the wide usage of a mass of nitrogen mustard agents to achieve further clinical significance. Discovery of antitumor hybrids using nitrogen mustards as key functional groups has exhibited enormous potential in the drug development. Introduction of nitrogen mustards resulted in improvement in the activity, selectivity, targetability, safety, pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics properties of corresponding lead compounds or agents. Herein, the recently developed nitrogen mustard based hybrids have been introduced in the cancer therapy.

Crude ethyl acetate extract of marine microalga, Chaetoceros calcitrans, induces Apoptosis in MDA-MB-231 breast cancer cells

Background:

Marine brown diatom Chaetoceros calcitrans and green microalga Nannochloropsis oculata are beneficial materials for various applications in the food, nutraceutical, pharmaceutical and cosmeceutical industries.

Objective:

This study investigated cytotoxicity of different crude solvent extracts from C. calcitrans and N. oculata against various cancer cell lines.

Materials and Methods:

3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide assay was carried out to screen the cytotoxic effects of hexane (Hex), dichloromethane (DCM), ethyl acetate, and methanol extract from C. calcitrans and N. oculata toward various cancer cell lines. Flow cytometry cell cycle was used to determine the cell cycle arrest while the mode of cell death was investigated through acridine orange/propidium iodide (AOPI) staining, Annexin V-Fluorescein Isothiocyanate (FITC) and Terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase-mediated d-UTP Nick End Labeling (TUNEL) assays. Expression profile of apoptotic and proliferative-related genes was then determined using the multiplex gene expression profiler (GeXP).

Results:

Crude ethyl acetate (CEA) extract of C. calcitrans inhibited growth of MDA-MB-231 cells, with IC₅₀ of 60 μg/mL after 72 h of treatment. Further studies were conducted to determine the mode of cell death at various concentrations of this extract: 30, 60 and 120 μg/mL. The mode of cell death was mainly apoptosis as shown through apoptosis determination test. The expression data from GeXP showed that caspase-4 was upregulated while B-cell leukemia/lymphoma 2(Bcl-2) was down regulated. Thus, caspase-4 induction endoplasmic reticulum death pathway is believed to be one of the mechanisms underlying the induction of apoptosis while Bcl-2 induced S and G2/M cell cycle phase arrest in MDA-MB-231 cells.

Conclusion:

CEA extract of C. calcitrans showed the highest cytotoxicity on MDA-MB-231 via apoptosis.

Synthesis and cytotoxicity studies of bifunctional hybrids of nitrogen mustards with potential enzymes inhibitors based on melamine framework

The new class of hybrid anticancer drugs were obtained by selective functionalization of the triazine scaffold. These were prepared by rearrangement of mono-, bis- and/or tris-(1,3,5-triazin-2-yl)-1,4-diazabicyclo[2.2.2]octanium chlorides leading to formation of 2-chloroethylamino fragments attached to 1,3,5-triazine via one, two or three piperazine rings respectively. Their inhibitory effect was found strongly dependent on the structure of substituents in triazine ring. The anti-proliferative activity of the hybrids evaluated in vitro by using mammalian tumour cells estimated as IC(50) was in the range 0.62-139,78 µM. Both cytotoxicity and alkylating activity depended on the substituents of triazine ring, however, also the mono-functional analogues of nitrogen mustards, which are unable to form liaisons between two DNA strands, induced apoptosis and necrosis in the tested cells.

Rational drug design

In this article, current knowledge of drug design is reviewed and an approach of rational drug design is presented. The process of drug development is challenging, expensive, and time consuming, although this process has been accelerated due to the development of computational tools and methodologies. The current target based drug design approach is incomplete because most of the drugs developed by structure guided approaches have been shown to have serious toxic side effects. Otherwise these drugs would have been an ideal choice for the treatment of diseases. Hence, rational drug design would require a multidisciplinary approach. In this regard, incorporation of gene expression technology and bioinformatics tools would be indispensable in the structure based drug design. Global gene expression data and analysis of such data using bioinformatics tools will have numerous benefits such as efficiency, cost effectiveness, time saving, and will provide strategies for combination therapy in addition to overcoming toxic side effects. As a result of incorporation of gene expression data, partial benefit of the structure based drug design is slowly emerging and rapidly changing the approach of the drug development process. To achieve the full benefit of developing a successful drug, multidisciplinary approaches (approaches such as computational chemistry and gene expression analysis, as discussed in this article) would be necessary. In the future, there is adequate room for the development of more sophisticated methodologies.