Topological structural alerts modulations of mammalian cell mutagenicity for halogenated derivatives

Antiplasmodial, Trypanocidal, and Genotoxicity In Vitro Assessment of New Hybrid α,α-Difluorophenylacetamide-statin Derivatives

BACKGROUND

Statins present a plethora of pleiotropic effects including anti-inflammatory and antimicrobial responses. A,α-difluorophenylacetamides, analogs of diclofenac, are potent pre-clinical anti-inflammatory non-steroidal drugs. Molecular hybridization based on the combination of pharmacophoric moieties has emerged as a strategy for the development of new candidates aiming to obtain multitarget ligands.

METHODS

Considering the anti-inflammatory activity of phenylacetamides and the potential microbicidal action of statins against obligate intracellular parasites, the objective of this work was to synthesize eight new hybrid compounds of α,α-difluorophenylacetamides with the moiety of statins and assess their phenotypic activity against in vitro models of Plasmodium falciparum and Trypanosoma cruzi infection besides exploring their genotoxicity safety profile.

RESULTS

None of the sodium salt compounds presented antiparasitic activity and two acetated compounds displayed mild anti-P. falciparum effect. Against T. cruzi, the acetate halogenated hybrids showed moderate effect against both parasite forms relevant for human infection. Despite the considerable trypanosomicidal activity, the brominated compound revealed a genotoxic profile impairing future in vivo testing.

CONCLUSIONS

However, the chlorinated derivative was the most promising compound with chemical and biological profitable characteristics, without presenting genotoxicity in vitro, being eligible for further in vivo experiments.

2D finger-printing and molecular docking studies identified potent mosquito repellents targeting odorant binding protein 1

Personal protection measures against the mosquitoes like the use of repellents constitute valuable tools in the effort to prevent the transmission of vector-borne diseases. Therefore, the discovery of novel repellent molecules which will be effective at lower concentrations and provide a longer duration of protection remains an urgent need. Mosquito Odorant-Binding Proteins (OBPs) involved in the initial steps of the olfactory signal transduction cascade have been recognized not only as passive carriers of odors and pheromones but also as the first molecular filter to discriminate semiochemicals, hence serving as molecular targets for the design of novel pest control agents. Among the three-dimensional structures of mosquito OBPs solved in the last decades, the OBP1 complexes with known repellents have been widely used as reference structures in docking analysis and molecular dynamics simulation studies for the structure-based discovery of new molecules with repellent activity. Herein, ten compounds known to be active against mosquitoes and/or displaying a binding affinity for Anopheles gambiae AgamOBP1 were used as queries in an in silico screening of over 96 million chemical samples in order to detect molecules with structural similarity. Further filtering of the acquired hits on the basis of toxicity, vapor pressure, and commercial availability resulted in 120 unique molecules that were subjected to molecular docking studies against OBP1. For seventeen potential OBP1-binders, the free energy of binding (FEB) and mode of interaction with the protein were further estimated by molecular docking simulations leading to the selection of eight molecules exhibiting the highest similarity with their parental compounds and favorable energy values. The in vitro determination of their binding affinity to AgamOBP1 and the evaluation of their repellent activity against female Aedes albopictus mosquitoes revealed that our combined ligand similarity screening and OBP1 structure-based molecular docking successfully detected three molecules with enhanced repellent properties. A novel DEET-like repellent with lower volatility (8.55 × 10^-4 mmHg) but a higher binding affinity for OBP1 than DEET (1.35 × 10^-3 mmHg). A highly active repellent molecule that is predicted to bind to the secondary Icaridin (sIC)-binding site of OBP1 with higher affinity than to the DEET-site and, therefore, represents a new scaffold to be exploited for the discovery of binders targeting multiple OBP sites. Finally, a third potent repellent exhibiting a high degree of volatility was found to be a strong DEET-site binder of OBP1 that could be used in slow-release formulations.

Advances in distributed computing with modern drug discovery

INTRODUCTION

Computational chemistry dramatically accelerates the drug discovery process and high-performance computing (HPC) can be used to speed up the most expensive calculations. Supporting a local HPC infrastructure is both costly and time-consuming, and, therefore, many research groups are moving from in-house solutions to remote-distributed computing platforms. Areas covered: The authors focus on the use of distributed technologies, solutions, and infrastructures to gain access to HPC capabilities, software tools, and datasets to run the complex simulations required in computational drug discovery (CDD). Expert opinion: The use of computational tools can decrease the time to market of new drugs. HPC has a crucial role in handling the complex algorithms and large volumes of data required to achieve specificity and avoid undesirable side-effects. Distributed computing environments have clear advantages over in-house solutions in terms of cost and sustainability. The use of infrastructures relying on virtualization reduces set-up costs. Distributed computing resources can be difficult to access, although web-based solutions are becoming increasingly available. There is a trade-off between cost-effectiveness and accessibility in using on-demand computing resources rather than free/academic resources. Graphics processing unit computing, with its outstanding parallel computing power, is becoming increasingly important.