COX-2 inhibitor nimesulide analogs are aromatase suppressors in breast cancer cells

Nimesulide analogues: From anti-inflammatory to antitumor agents

Nimesulide is a nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug possessing analgesic and antipyretic properties. This drug is considered a selective cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) inhibitor and, more recently, has been associated to antitumor activity. Thus, numerous works have been developed to modify the nimesulide skeleton aiming to develop new and more potent and selective COX-2 inhibitors as well as potential anticancer agents. This review intends to provide an overview on analogues of nimesulide, including the general synthetic approaches used for their preparation and structural diversification and their main anti-inflammatory and/or antitumor properties.

In silico drug repositioning based on drug-miRNA associations

Drug repositioning has become a prevailing tactic as this strategy is efficient, economical and low risk for drug discovery. Meanwhile, recent studies have confirmed that small-molecule drugs can modulate the expression of disease-related miRNAs, which indicates that miRNAs are promising therapeutic targets for complex diseases. In this study, we put forward and verified the hypothesis that drugs with similar miRNA profiles may share similar therapeutic properties. Furthermore, a comprehensive drug–drug interaction network was constructed based on curated drug-miRNA associations. Through random network comparison, topological structure analysis and network module extraction, we found that the closely linked drugs in the network tend to treat the same diseases. Additionally, the curated drug–disease relationships (from the CTD) and random walk with restarts algorithm were utilized on the drug–drug interaction network to identify the potential drugs for a given disease. Both internal validation (leave-one-out cross-validation) and external validation (independent drug–disease data set from the ChEMBL) demonstrated the effectiveness of the proposed approach. Finally, by integrating drug-miRNA and miRNA-disease information, we also explain the modes of action of drugs in the view of miRNA regulation. In summary, our work could determine novel and credible drug indications and offer novel insights and valuable perspectives for drug repositioning.

Comparative Evaluation of Nimesulide-Loaded Nanoparticles for Anticancer Activity Against Breast Cancer Cells

Recent clinical and epidemiological researches have declared that non-steroidal anti-inflammatory agents may display as antineoplastic agents and indicate pro-apoptotic and antiproliferative effects on cancer cells. The major purpose of this research was to develop a novel poly(ethyleneglycol)-block-poly(ε-caprolactone) (PEG-b-PCL) nano-sized particles encapsulated with nimesulide (NMS), a selective COX-2 inhibitor, and to evaluate its anticancer activity against MCF-7 breast cancer cells. NMS-encapsulated PEG-b-PCL nanoparticles were fabricated using three different production techniques: (i) by emulsion-solvent evaporation using a high shear homogenizer, (ii) by emulsion-solvent evaporation using an ultrasonicator, and (iii) by nanoprecipitation. Nanoparticles were evaluated with respect to the entrapment efficiency, size characteristics, drug release rates, thermal behavior, cell viability assays, and apoptosis. The resulting nanoparticles were found to be spherical shapes with negative surface charges. The average diameter of all nanoparticles ranged between 148.5 and 307.2 nm. In vitro release profiles showed that all nanoparticles exhibited a biphasic release pattern. NMS-loaded PEG-b-PCL nanoparticles demonstrated significant anticancer activity against MCF-7 breast cancer cells in a dose-dependent manner, and the effects of nanoparticles on cell proliferation were significantly affected by the preparation techniques. The nanoparticles developed in this work displayed higher potential for the NMS delivery against breast cancer treatment for the future.