Protein targets of thiazolidinone derivatives in Toxoplasma gondii and insights into their binding to ROP18

Thiazolidin-4-one-based derivatives - Efficient tools for designing antiprotozoal agents. A review of the last decade

Thiazolidin-4-one derivatives have a wide range of therapeutic implementations and clinical significance for medicinal chemistry. This heterocyclic ring has been reported to possess a variety of biological activities, including antiprotozoal activities that have inspired scientists to integrate this scaffold with different pharmacophoric fragments to design novel and effective antiprotozoal compounds. There are reviews describing thiazolidin-4-ones small molecules as good candidates with a single type of antiprotozoal activity, but none of these show collected news associated with the antiprotozoal activity of thiazolidin-4-ones and their SAR analysis from the last decade. In this review we are focusing on the antitoxoplasmic, anti-trypanosomal, antimalarial, antileishmanial, and antiamoebic activity of these derivatives, we attempt to summarize and analyze the recent developments with regard to the antiprotozoal potential of 4-TZD covering the structure-activity relationship and main molecular targets. The importance of various structural modifications at C2, N3, and C5 of the thiazolidine-4-one core has also been discussed in this review. We hope that all information concluded in this review can be useful for other researchers in constructing new effective antiprotozoal agents.

Microwave Irradiated Synthesis of Pyrimidine Containing, Thiazolidin-4-ones: Antimicrobial, Anti-tuberculosis, Antimalarial, and Anti-protozoa evaluation

Aim:

This study aims to synthesize thiazolidine-4-one compounds with a pyrimidine nucleus and evaluate against different species of bacteria, fungi, protozoa, and the malaria parasite.

Background:

Microwave irradiation was the best method for synthesizing the thiazolidin-4-one ring system. It took only 15 minutes for synthesizing thiazolidin-4-one while the conventional method required 12 hours. The rapid reaction was the main concern of this research.

Objective:

Pyrimidine and Thiazolidin-4-one nucleus have broad-spectrum biological activity and when it is introduced with other hetero atoms containing moiety, many types of biological activities have been found; antimicrobial, anti-tuberculosis, anti-protozoa, antimalarial are the main activities. The activity of these compounds inspired us to do extra research on Thiazolidin-4-one fused pyrimidines with different functional groups. The aim of this is to synthesize a combination of these two ring systems in less time by using a microwave irradiation method and to evaluate new compounds for different bioactivity.

Method:

2-(4-Chlorophenyl)-3-(4-(substituted phenyl)-6-(substituted aryl) pyrimidin-2-yl) thiazolidin-4-ones (6A-J) were synthesized by microwave irradiation to save energy and time. The structure of all newly synthesized motifs was characterized by spectral analysis (1H NMR, 13C NMR, IR, spectroscopy) and screened for antibacterial activity against Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Staphylococcus aureus, and Streptococcus pyogenes, antifungal activity against Candida albicans, Aspergillus niger, Aspergillus clavatus, anti-tuberculosis activity against M. tuberculosis H37RV, antimalarial activity against Plasmodium falciparum and anti-protozoa activity against L. mexicana and T. cruzi.

Result:

Because of microwave irradiation synthesis, time period is very less for preparing the new compound. Biological response given by compounds 6B, 6C, 6D, 6E, 6G, 6H, and 6J was found excellent.

Conclusion:

Good yield with purity of the newly synthesized thiazolidine-4-one compounds obtained in less time by using microwave irradiation. The biological response of some of the compounds of this series was found excellent

Toxoplasmosis: Current and Emerging Parasite Druggable Targets

Toxoplasmosis is a prevalent disease affecting a wide range of hosts including approximately one-third of the human population. It is caused by the sporozoan parasite Toxoplasma gondii (T. gondii), which instigates a range of symptoms, manifesting as acute and chronic forms and varying from ocular to deleterious congenital or neuro-toxoplasmosis. Toxoplasmosis may cause serious health problems in fetuses, newborns, and immunocompromised patients. Recently, associations between toxoplasmosis and various neuropathies and different types of cancer were documented. In the veterinary sector, toxoplasmosis results in recurring abortions, leading to significant economic losses. Treatment of toxoplasmosis remains intricate and encompasses general antiparasitic and antibacterial drugs. The efficacy of these drugs is hindered by intolerance, side effects, and emergence of parasite resistance. Furthermore, all currently used drugs in the clinic target acute toxoplasmosis, with no or little effect on the chronic form. In this review, we will provide a comprehensive overview on the currently used and emergent drugs and their respective parasitic targets to combat toxoplasmosis. We will also abridge the repurposing of certain drugs, their targets, and highlight future druggable targets to enhance the therapeutic efficacy against toxoplasmosis, hence lessening its burden and potentially alleviating the complications of its associated diseases.

In vitro evaluation of new 4-thiazolidinones on invasion and growth of Toxoplasma gondii

Treatments for toxoplasmosis such as pyrimethamine have shown numerous side effects. It has been reported that the likelihood of relapse associated with pyrimethamine-based therapy in patients with HIV and toxoplasmic encephalitis (TE) can have significant implications, even for patients who often develop new lesions in areas of the brain previously free of infection. This led us to research for new agents against Toxoplasma gondii. Recent findings have shown the potent biological activity of 4-thiazolidinones. We proposed to design and synthesize a new series of 2-hydrazono-4-thiazolidinones derivatives to evaluate the in vitro growth inhibition effect on T. gondii. The growth rates of T. gondii tachyzoites in Human Foreskin Fibroblast (HFF) cell culture were identified by two in vitro methodologies. The first one was by fluorescence in which green fluorescent RH parasites and cherry-red fluorescent ME49 parasites were used. The second one was a colorimetric methodology using β-Gal parasites of the RH strain constitutively expressing the enzyme beta-galactosidase. The 4-thiazolidinone derivatives 1B, 2B and 3B showed growth inhibition at the same level of Pyrimethamine. These compounds showed IC50 values of 1B (0.468-0.952 μM), 2B (0.204-0.349 μM) and 3B (0.661-1.015 μM) against T. gondii. As a measure of cytotoxicity the compounds showed a TD50 values of: 1B (60 μM), 2B (206 μM) and 3B (125 μM). The in vitro assays and molecular modeling results suggest that these compounds could act as possible inhibitors of the Calcium-Dependent Protein Kinase 1 of T. gondii. Further, our results support the fact that of combining appropriate detection technologies, combinatorial chemistry and computational biology is a good strategy for efficient drug discovery. These compounds merit in vivo analysis for anti-parasitic drug detection.