Synthesis and anticancer activities of novel 8-azapurine carbocyclic nucleoside hydrazones

Design, synthesis, and anticancer evaluation of N6 -hydrazone purine derivatives with potential antiplatelet aggregation activity

In our research on novel anticancer agents, a series of N⁶ -hydrazone purine derivatives were designed and synthesized by analysis of a pharmacophore model for ATP-competitive inhibitors. The activities screening results showed that N⁶ -hydrazone purine derivatives 21 and 26 not only showed potential antiproliferative activity against the A549 and MCF-7 cell lines comparable to Vandetanib as a positive control but also had moderate antiplatelet aggregation activity. In order to investigate the possible targets, a molecular docking study was carried out on the fourteen kinases associated with anticancer and antiplatelet aggregation activities. The results indicated that compounds 21 and 26 had the potential activity to target VEGFR-2, PI3Kα, EGFR, and HER2 kinases. The inhibition of the kinases assay showed that compound 26 could target VEGFR-2, PI3Kα, and EGFR (IC₅₀  = 0.822, 3.040 and 6.625 μM). All results indicated that compound 26 will be an encouraging framework as potential new multi-target anticancer agent with potential antiplatelet aggregation activity.

Photoreductive β-aminoalkylation with amino acids affords functionalized γ-aminoketones for nucleoside mimics

We developed a facile photoreductive and stereoselective β-aminoalkylation of a crowded enone by blue LED light irradiation using a wide variety of α-amino acids in order to access 5'-amino substituted carbasugar nucleosides for SAM-based methyltransferase inhibitors. This photochemical method provides highly functionalized carbasugar mimics for nucleoside analogue synthesis.

Research Progress on the Biological Activities of Metal Complexes Bearing Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrazones

Due to the abundant and promising biological activities of aromatic hydrazones, it is of great significance to study the biological activities of their metal complexes for the research and development of metal-based drugs. In this review, we focus on the metal complexes of polycyclic aromatic hydrazones, which still do not receive much attention, and summarize the studies related to their biological activities. Although the large number of metal complexes in phenylhydrazone prevent them all from being summarized, the significant value of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons themselves (such as naphthalene and anthracene) as pharmacophores are also considered. Therefore, the bioactivities of the metal complexes of naphthylhydrazone and anthrahydrazone are focused on, and the recent research progress on the metal complexes of anthrahydrazone by the authors is also included. In terms of biological activities, these complexes mainly show antibacterial and anticancer activities, along with less bioactivities. The present review demonstrates that the structural design and bioactivities of these complexes are fundamental, which also indicates a certain structure-activity relationship (SAR) in some substructural areas. However, a systematic and comprehensive conclusion of the SAR is still not available, which suggests that more attention should be paid to the bioactivities of the metal complexes of polycyclic aromatic hydrazones since their potential in structural design and biological activity remains to be explored. We hope that this review will attract more researchers to devote their interest and energy into this promising area.

Synthesis and biological evaluation of N 6 derivatives of 8-azapurine as novel antiplatelet agents

Two series of novel N 6 derivatives of 8-azapurine I and II were designed as antiplatelet agents. Series I and II were N 6 amino derivatives and N 6 hydrazone derivatives of 8-azapurine, respectively. The compounds were synthesized in acceptable yields via conventional procedures, including nucleophilic substitution, diazotization, and amination or hydrazonation with amino alcohol and 4,6-dichloropyrimidine as starting materials. To assess the ability of the synthesized compounds as antiplatelet agents, the ADP-induced platelet aggregation assay of Born was performed both in vitro and in vivo using ticagrelor as a reference control substance. The analysis of the structure-activity relationship and molecular docking were also discussed in detail. The results demonstrated that series I and II compounds exhibited antiplatelet activity in vitro and IIh was the most active compound (IC50 = 0.20 μM) among the target compounds, being almost 4-fold better than ticagrelor (IC50 = 0.74 μM). For a preliminary assessment of the safety profile, a bleeding test (mouse tail) and a single-dose toxicity test were conducted. The use of compound IIh resulted in a shorter bleeding time, less blood loss and lower acute toxicity compared to ticagrelor. In addition, a molecular docking study was performed to investigate the binding capacity and binding mode between IIh and P2Y12.

Synthesis and biological evaluation of N4 -hydrazone derivatives of 5,7-dihydro-6H-pyrrolo[2,3-d]pyrimidin-6-one as novel anticancer agents with antimetastatic adjunct efficacy

To obtain new anticancer agents with antimetastatic adjunct efficacy, a series of novel N⁴ -hydrazone derivatives of 5,7-dihydro-6H-pyrrolo[2,3-d]pyrimidin-6-one were designed and synthesized by an eight-step reaction, with appropriate yields. All the synthesized compounds were evaluated for their antiproliferative activity against A549 and MCF-7 cells and for antiplatelet aggregation activity in vitro. The results showed that compounds 25 and 35 not only showed potent antiproliferative activity against the A549 (IC₅₀  = 15.3 and 21.4 μM) and MCF-7 (IC₅₀  = 15.6 and 10.9 μM) cell lines but also showed certain antiplatelet aggregation activity (inhibition rates: 47.0% and 45.8%). These results indicated that the structural modification on the N⁴ -hydrazone moiety of 5,7-dihydro-6H-pyrrolo[2,3-d]pyrimidin-6-one is promising to obtain novel anticancer compounds with antimetastatic adjunct efficacy. In addition, a molecular docking study was performed to investigate the possible targets, and these results indicated that compounds 25 and 35 have the potential to target EGFR, HER2, and P2Y₁₂ .

Synthesis of ticagrelor analogues belonging to 1,2,3-triazolo[4,5-d]pyrimidines and study of their antiplatelet and antibacterial activity

Based on the recent observation that the antiplatelet agent ticagrelor and one of its metabolite exert bactericidal activity against gram-positive bacteria, a series of 1,2,3-triazolo[4,5-d]pyrimidines structurally related to ticagrelor were synthesized and examined as putative antiplatelet and antibacterial agents. The aim was to assess the possibility of dissociating the two biological properties and to find novel 1,2,3-triazolo[4,5-d]pyrimidines expressing antiplatelet activity and devoid of in vitro antibacterial activity. The new compounds synthesized were known metabolites of ticagrelor as well as structurally simplified analogues. Some of them were found to express antiplatelet activity and to lose the antibacterial activity, supporting the view that the two activities were not necessarily linked.

Design, synthesis and biological evaluation of novel pteridinone derivatives possessing a hydrazone moiety as potent PLK1 inhibitors

A series of novel pteridinone derivatives possessing a hydrazone moiety were designed, synthesized and evaluated for their biological activity. Most of the synthesized compounds demonstrated moderate to excellent activity against A549, HCT116 and PC-3 cancer cell lines. In particular, compound L19 exhibited the most potent antiproliferative effects on three cell lines with IC50 values of 3.23 μM, 4.36 μM and 8.20 μM, respectively. In kinase assays, the compound L19 also showed potent inhibition activity toward PLK1 with % inhibition values of 75.1. Further mechanism studies revealed that compound L19 significantly inhibited proliferation of HCT-116 cell lines, induced a great decrease in mitochondrial membrane potential resulting in apoptosis of cancer cells, inhibited the migration of tumor cells, and arrested G1 phase of HCT116 cells.