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Diaz de Greñu B, Fernández-Aroca DM, Organero JA, Durá G, Jalón FA, Sánchez-Prieto R, Ruiz-Hidalgo MJ, Rodríguez AM, Santos L, Albasanz JL, Manzano BR. Ferrozoles: Ferrocenyl derivatives of letrozole with dual effects as potent aromatase inhibitors and cytostatic agents. J Biol Inorg Chem 2023; 28:531-547. [PMID: 37458856 DOI: 10.1007/s00775-023-02006-0] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/24/2023] [Accepted: 06/07/2023] [Indexed: 08/11/2023]
Abstract
In the treatment of hormone-dependent cancers, aromatase inhibitors (AI) are receiving increased attention due to some undesirable effects such as the risk of endometrial cancer and thromboembolism of SERMs (selective estrogen receptor modulators). Letrozole is the most active AI with 99% aromatase inhibition. Unfortunately, this compound also exhibits some adverse effects such as hot flashes and fibromyalgias. Therefore, there is an urgent need to explore new types of AIs that retain the same-or even increased-antitumor ability. Inspired by the letrozole structure, a set of new derivatives has been synthesized that include a ferrocenyl moiety and different heterocycles. The derivative that contains a benzimidazole ring, namely compound 6, exhibits a higher aromatase inhibitory activity than letrozole and it also shows potent cytostatic behavior when compared to other well-established aromatase inhibitors, as demonstrated by dose-response, cell cycle, apoptosis and time course experiments. Furthermore, 6 promotes the inhibition of cell growth in both an aromatase-dependent and -independent fashion, as indicated by the study of A549 and MCF7 cell lines. Molecular docking and molecular dynamics calculations on the interaction of 6 or letrozole with the aromatase binding site revealed that the ferrocene moiety increases the van der Waals and hydrophobic interactions, thus resulting in an increase in binding affinity. Furthermore, the iron atom of the ferrocene fragment can form a metal-acceptor interaction with a propionate fragment, and this results in a stronger coupling with the heme group-a possibility that is consistent with the strong aromatase inhibition of 6.
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Affiliation(s)
- Borja Diaz de Greñu
- Departamento de Química Inorgánica, Orgánica y Bioquímica, Facultad de Ciencias y Tecnologías Químicas, IRICA, Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha, Avda. C. J Cela, 10, 13071, Ciudad Real, Spain
| | - Diego M Fernández-Aroca
- Laboratorio de Oncología Molecular, Unidad de Medicina Molecular, Centro Regional de Investigaciones Biomédicas, Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha, Unidad Asociada de Biomedicina UCLM, Unidad Asociada al CSIC, Albacete, Spain
| | - Juan A Organero
- Departamento de Química Física, Facultad de Ciencias Ambientales y Bioquímicas and INAMOL, Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha, 45071, Toledo, Spain
| | - Gema Durá
- Departamento de Química Inorgánica, Orgánica y Bioquímica, Facultad de Ciencias y Tecnologías Químicas, IRICA, Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha, Avda. C. J Cela, 10, 13071, Ciudad Real, Spain
| | - Felix Angel Jalón
- Departamento de Química Inorgánica, Orgánica y Bioquímica, Facultad de Ciencias y Tecnologías Químicas, IRICA, Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha, Avda. C. J Cela, 10, 13071, Ciudad Real, Spain
| | - Ricardo Sánchez-Prieto
- Laboratorio de Oncología Molecular, Unidad de Medicina Molecular, Centro Regional de Investigaciones Biomédicas, Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha, Unidad Asociada de Biomedicina UCLM, Unidad Asociada al CSIC, Albacete, Spain
- Departamento de Biología del Cáncer, Instituto de Investigaciones Biomédicas Alberto Sols (CSIC-UAM), Madrid, Spain
- Unidad Asociada de Biomedicina UCLM, Unidad Asociada al CSIC, Albacete, Spain
| | - M José Ruiz-Hidalgo
- Laboratorio de Oncología Molecular, Unidad de Medicina Molecular, Centro Regional de Investigaciones Biomédicas, Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha, Unidad Asociada de Biomedicina UCLM, Unidad Asociada al CSIC, Albacete, Spain
- Área de Bioquímica y Biología Molecular, Departamento de Química Inorgánica, Orgánica y Bioquímica, Facultad de Medicina, Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha, Albacete, Spain
| | - Ana María Rodríguez
- Departamento de Q. Inorgánica, Orgánica y Bioquímica, IRICA, Escuela Técnica Superior de Ingenieros Industriales, Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha, Avda. C. J. Cela, 3, 13071, Ciudad Real, Spain
| | - Lucia Santos
- Departamento de Q. Física, Facultad de Ciencias y Tecnologías Químicas, Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha, Avda. C. J. Cela, S/N, 13071, Ciudad Real, Spain
| | - José L Albasanz
- Department of Inorganic and Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry, Faculty of Chemical and Technological Sciences, School of Medicine of Ciudad Real, Regional Center of Biomedical Research (CRIB), University of Castilla-La Mancha (UCLM), 13071, Ciudad Real, Spain
| | - Blanca R Manzano
- Departamento de Química Inorgánica, Orgánica y Bioquímica, Facultad de Ciencias y Tecnologías Químicas, IRICA, Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha, Avda. C. J Cela, 10, 13071, Ciudad Real, Spain.
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Caballero Alfonso AY, Mora Lagares L, Novic M, Benfenati E, Kumar A. Exploration of structural requirements for azole chemicals towards human aromatase CYP19A1 activity: Classification modeling, structure-activity relationships and read-across study. Toxicol In Vitro 2022; 81:105332. [PMID: 35176449 DOI: 10.1016/j.tiv.2022.105332] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/22/2021] [Revised: 01/10/2022] [Accepted: 02/10/2022] [Indexed: 01/23/2023]
Abstract
Human aromatase, also called CYP19A1, plays a major role in the conversion of androgens into estrogens. Inhibition of aromatase is an important target for estrogen receptor (ER)-responsive breast cancer therapy. Use of azole compounds as aromatase inhibitors is widespread despite their low selectivity. A toxicological evaluation of commonly used azole-based drugs and agrochemicals with respect to CYP19A1is currently requested by the European Union- Registration, Evaluation, Authorization and Restriction of Chemicals (EU-REACH) regulations due to their potential as endocrine disruptors. In this connection, identification of structural alerts (SAs) is an effective strategy for the toxicological assessment and safe drug design. The present study describes the identification of SAs of azole-based chemicals as guiding experts to predict the aromatase activity. Total 21 SAs associated with aromatase activity were extracted from dataset of 326 azole-based drugs/chemicals obtained from Tox21 library. A cross-validated classification model having high accuracy (error rate 5%) was proposed which can precisely classify azole chemicals into active/inactive toward aromatase. In addition, mechanistic details and toxicological properties (agonism/antagonism) of azoles with respect to aromatase were explored by comparing active and inactive chemicals using structure-activity relationships (SAR). Lastly, few structural alerts were applied to form chemical categories for read-across applications.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ana Y Caballero Alfonso
- Laboratory of Environmental Chemistry and Toxicology, Department of Environmental Health Sciences, Istituto di RicercheFarmacologiche "Mario Negri"-IRCCS, Milano, Italy; Jozef Stefan International Postgraduate School, Jamova cesta 39, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia
| | - Liadys Mora Lagares
- Jozef Stefan International Postgraduate School, Jamova cesta 39, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia; Theory Department, Laboratory for Cheminformatics, National Institute of Chemistry, Ljubljana, Slovenia
| | - Marjana Novic
- Theory Department, Laboratory for Cheminformatics, National Institute of Chemistry, Ljubljana, Slovenia
| | - Emilio Benfenati
- Laboratory of Environmental Chemistry and Toxicology, Department of Environmental Health Sciences, Istituto di RicercheFarmacologiche "Mario Negri"-IRCCS, Milano, Italy
| | - Anil Kumar
- Department of Applied Sciences, University Institute of Engineering and Technology, Panjab University, Chandigarh 160014, India.
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Synthesis, Docking Studies and Biological Activity of New Benzimidazole- Triazolothiadiazine Derivatives as Aromatase Inhibitor. Molecules 2020; 25:molecules25071642. [PMID: 32252458 PMCID: PMC7180718 DOI: 10.3390/molecules25071642] [Citation(s) in RCA: 24] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/03/2020] [Revised: 03/31/2020] [Accepted: 04/01/2020] [Indexed: 02/01/2023] Open
Abstract
In the last step of estrogen biosynthesis, aromatase enzyme catalyzes the conversion of androgens to estrogens. Aromatase inhibition is an important way to control estrogen-related diseases and estrogen levels. In this study, sixteen of benzimidazole-triazolothiadiazine derivatives have been synthesized and studied as potent aromatase inhibitors. First, these compounds were tested for their anti-cancer properties against human breast cancer cell line (MCF-7). The most active compounds 5c, 5e, 5k, and 5m on MCF-7 cell line were subject to further in vitro aromatase enzyme inhibition assays to determine the possible mechanisms of action underlying their activity. Compound 5e showed slight less potent aromatase inhibitory activity than that of letrozole with IC50 = 0.032 ± 0.042 µM, compared to IC50 = 0.024 ± 0.001 µM for letrozole. Furthermore, compound 5e and reference drug letrozole were docked into human placental aromatase enzyme to predict their possible binding modes with the enzyme. Finally, ADME parameters (absorption, distribution, metabolism, and excretion) of synthesized compounds (5a–5p) were calculated by QikProp 4.8 software.
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Acar Çevik U, Sağlık BN, Osmaniye D, Levent S, Kaya Çavuşoğlu B, Karaduman AB, Özkay Y, Kaplancıklı ZA. Synthesis and docking study of benzimidazole–triazolothiadiazine hybrids as aromatase inhibitors. Arch Pharm (Weinheim) 2020; 353:e2000008. [DOI: 10.1002/ardp.202000008] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/09/2020] [Revised: 02/18/2020] [Accepted: 02/19/2020] [Indexed: 12/13/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Ulviye Acar Çevik
- Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, Faculty of PharmacyAnadolu UniversityEskişehir Turkey
- Doping and Narcotic Compounds Analysis Laboratory, Faculty of PharmacyAnadolu UniversityEskişehir Turkey
| | - Begüm N. Sağlık
- Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, Faculty of PharmacyAnadolu UniversityEskişehir Turkey
- Doping and Narcotic Compounds Analysis Laboratory, Faculty of PharmacyAnadolu UniversityEskişehir Turkey
| | - Derya Osmaniye
- Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, Faculty of PharmacyAnadolu UniversityEskişehir Turkey
- Doping and Narcotic Compounds Analysis Laboratory, Faculty of PharmacyAnadolu UniversityEskişehir Turkey
| | - Serkan Levent
- Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, Faculty of PharmacyAnadolu UniversityEskişehir Turkey
- Doping and Narcotic Compounds Analysis Laboratory, Faculty of PharmacyAnadolu UniversityEskişehir Turkey
| | - Betül Kaya Çavuşoğlu
- Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, Faculty of PharmacyAnadolu UniversityEskişehir Turkey
- Doping and Narcotic Compounds Analysis Laboratory, Faculty of PharmacyAnadolu UniversityEskişehir Turkey
| | - Abdullah B. Karaduman
- Department of Pharmaceutical Toxicology, Faculty of PharmacyAnadolu UniversityEskişehir Turkey
| | - Yusuf Özkay
- Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, Faculty of PharmacyAnadolu UniversityEskişehir Turkey
- Doping and Narcotic Compounds Analysis Laboratory, Faculty of PharmacyAnadolu UniversityEskişehir Turkey
| | - Zafer A. Kaplancıklı
- Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, Faculty of PharmacyAnadolu UniversityEskişehir Turkey
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Shukla A, Tyagi R, Meena S, Datta D, Srivastava SK, Khan F. 2D- and 3D-QSAR modelling, molecular docking and in vitro evaluation studies on 18β-glycyrrhetinic acid derivatives against triple-negative breast cancer cell line. J Biomol Struct Dyn 2019; 38:168-185. [PMID: 30686140 DOI: 10.1080/07391102.2019.1570868] [Citation(s) in RCA: 20] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/22/2022]
Abstract
Triple-negative breast cancers (TNBCs) are one of the most aggressive and complex forms of cancers in women. TNBCs are commonly known for their complex heterogeneity and poor prognosis. The present work aimed to develop a predictive 2D and 3D quantitative structure-activity relationship (QSAR) models against metastatic TNBC cell line. The 2D-QSAR was based on multiple linear regression analysis and validated by Leave-One-Out (LOO) and external test set prediction approach. QSAR model presented regression coefficient values for training set (r2), LOO-based internal regression (q2) and external test set regression (pred_r2) which are 0.84, 0.82 and 0.75, respectively. Five properties, Epsilon4 (electronegativity), ChiV3cluster (valence molecular connectivity index), chi3chain (retention index for three-membered ring), TNN5 (nitrogen atoms separated through 5 bond distance) and nitrogen counts, were identified as important structural features responsible for anticancer activity of MDA-MB-231 inhibitors. Five novel derivatives of glycyrrhetinic acid (GA) named GA-1, GA-2, GA-3, GA-4 and GA-5 were semi-synthesised and screened through the QSAR model. Further, in vitro activities of the derivatives were analysed against human TNBC cell line, MDA-MB-231. The result showed that GA-1 exhibits improved cytotoxic activity to that of parent compound (GA). Further, atomic property field (APF)-based 3D-QSAR and scoring recognise C-30 carboxylic group of GA-1 as major influential factor for its anticancer activity. The significance of C-30 carboxylic group in GA derivatives was also confirmed by molecular docking study against cancer target glyoxalase-I. Finally, the oral bioavailability and toxicity of GA-1 were assessed by computational ADMET studies.Communicated by Ramaswamy H. Sarma.
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Affiliation(s)
- Aparna Shukla
- Metabolic and Structural Biology Department, CSIR-Central Institute of Medicinal and Aromatic Plants, Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, India
| | - Rekha Tyagi
- Medicinal Chemistry Division, Central Institute of Medicinal and Aromatic Plants, Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, India
| | - Sanjeev Meena
- Biochemistry Division, CSIR-Central Drug Research Institute (CDRI), Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, India
| | - Dipak Datta
- Biochemistry Division, CSIR-Central Drug Research Institute (CDRI), Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, India
| | - Santosh Kumar Srivastava
- Medicinal Chemistry Division, Central Institute of Medicinal and Aromatic Plants, Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, India
| | - Feroz Khan
- Metabolic and Structural Biology Department, CSIR-Central Institute of Medicinal and Aromatic Plants, Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, India
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