In silico investigation of potential mTOR inhibitors from traditional Chinese medicine for treatment of Leigh syndrome

Synthesis, Cytotoxic Activity and In Silico Study of Novel Dihydropyridine Carboxylic Acids Derivatives

To aid the possible prevention of multidrug resistance in tumors and cause lower toxicity, a set of sixteen novel dihydropyridine carboxylic acids derivatives 3a-p were produced; thus, the activation of various ynones with triflic anhydride was performed, involving a nucleophilic addition of several bis(trimethylsilyl) ketene acetals, achieving good yields requiring easy workup. The target molecules were unequivocally characterized by common spectroscopic methods. In addition, two of the tested compounds (3a, and 3b) were selected to perform in silico studies due to the highest cytotoxic activity towards the HCT-15 cell line (7.94 ± 1.6 μM and 9.24 ± 0.9 μM, respectively). Employing theoretical calculations with density functional theory (DFT) using the B3LYP/6-311++G(d,p) showed that the molecular parameters correlate adequately with the experimental results. In contrast, predictions employing Osiris Property Explorer showed that compounds 3a and 3b present physicochemical characteristics that would likely make it an orally active drug. Moreover, the performance of Docking studies with proteins related to the apoptosis pathway allowed a proposal of which compounds could interact with PARP-1 protein. Pondering the obtained results (synthesis, in silico, and cytotoxic activity) of the target compounds, they can be judged as suitable antineoplastic agent candidates.

Mechanistic/mammalian target of rapamycin and side effects of antipsychotics: insights into mechanisms and implications for therapy

Antipsychotic pharmacotherapy has been widely recommended as the standard of care for the treatment of acute schizophrenia and psychotic symptoms of other psychiatric disorders. However, there are growing concerns regarding antipsychotic-induced side effects, including weight gain, metabolic syndrome (MetS), and extrapyramidal motor disorders, which not only decrease patient compliance, but also predispose to diabetes and cardiovascular diseases. To date, most studies and reviews on the mechanisms of antipsychotic-induced metabolic side effects have focused on central nervous system mediation of appetite and food intake. However, disturbance in glucose and lipid metabolism, and hepatic steatosis induced by antipsychotic drugs might precede weight gain and MetS. Recent studies have demonstrated that the mechanistic/mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) pathway plays a critical regulatory role in the pathophysiology of antipsychotic drug-induced disorders of hepatic glucose and lipid metabolism. Furthermore, antipsychotic drugs promote striatal mTOR pathway activation that contributes to extrapyramidal motor side effects. Although recent findings have advanced the understanding of the role of the mTOR pathway in antipsychotic-induced side effects, few reviews have been conducted on this emerging topic. In this review, we synthesize key findings by focusing on the roles of the hepatic and striatal mTOR pathways in the pathogenesis of metabolic and extrapyramidal side effects, respectively. We further discuss the potential therapeutic benefits of normalizing excessive mTOR pathway activation with mTOR specific inhibitors. A deeper understanding of pathogenesis may inform future intervention strategies using the pharmacological or genetic inhibitors of mTOR to prevent and manage antipsychotic-induced side effects.

FGFR2 regulation by picrasidine Q inhibits the cell growth and induces apoptosis in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma

Fibroblast growth factor receptor (FGFR) 2 and its downstream signaling cascades, PI3 K/AKT/mTOR is playing an important role in cell survival and proliferations. In this study, we firstly found that picrasidine Q (PQ), an alkaloid component extracted from Angelica keiskei species, has the capacity of anti-cell transformation and anti-cancer. After ligand shape similarity approach of PQ, we found that PQ targeted FGFR 2 and verified by FGFR2 kinase assay as well as computational docking model. FGFR2 highly expressed in esophageal cancer tissues and PQ inhibited fibroblast growth factor (FGF)-induced cell transformation. Furthermore, PQ inhibited cell proliferation and induced cell cycle arrest and apoptosis in KYSE30, KYSE410, and KYSE450 esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) cells. It was confirmed by detecting of biological markers such as cyclinD1, cyclinD3 and cyclinB1 for cell cycle or cleaved caspase-7, caspase-3, and PARP for apoptosis. PQ targeting of FGFR2 kinase activities suppressed downstream target proteins including phosphorylation of AKT and mTOR but not MEK/ERK signaling pathways. Taken together, our results are the first to identify that PQ might be a chemopreventive and chemotherapeutic agent by direct targeting FGFR2 and inhibiting cell proliferation of ESCC cells.