Design, Synthesis and Biological Potential of 5-(2-Amino-6-(3/4-bromophenyl)pyrimidin-4-yl)benzene-1,3-diol Scaffolds as Promising Antimicrobial and Anticancer Agents

Formulation and evaluation of Piroxicam nanosponge for improved internal solubility and analgesic activity

Cyclodextrin nanosponges are solid nanoparticles, designed by cross-linking of cyclodextrin polymer; it has been used widely as a good delivery system for water insoluble drugs. The aim of this study is to enhance the solubility of Piroxicam (PXM) using β-Cyclodextrin based nanosponges formulations. PXM nanosponge (PXM-NS) formulations were prepared using β-cyclodextrin and carbonyldiimidazole as a cross linker, three ratios of β-cyclodextrin to crosslinker in addition to three drug to nanosponges ratios were tested. Piroxicam nanosponge formulations were characterized for its particle size, zeta potential, physical compatibility and in vitro release. Stability studies at three temperatures (4 °C, 25 °C and 40 °C) were done for optimal formula. Finally, the in vivo analgesic activity and pharmacokinetic parameters of the optimal formula were conducted. The optimized PXM-NS formula (PXM-NS10) showed particle size (362 ± 14.06 nm), polydispersity index (0.0518), zeta potential (17 ± 1.05 mV), and %EE (79.13 ± 4.33). The dissolution study showed a significant increase in the amount of PXM dissolved compared with the unformulated drug. Stability studies confirmed that nanosponge showed accepted stability for 90 days at 4 °C and 25 °C. In vivo analgesic studies verified that there was a significant enhancement in the analgesic response to PXM in mice, and 1.42 fold enhancement in the relative bioavailability of PXM-NS10 as compared to commercial tablets. Nanosponge prepared under optimal conditions is an encouraging formula for increasing the solubility and therefore the bioavailability of Piroxicam.

Systems pharmacology aiding benzimidazole scaffold as potential lead compounds against leishmaniasis for functional therapeutics

Systems pharmacology helps to understand the complex relationships between biological systems, drugs, and infection model; Leishmania major being one of them. It has aided the drug discovery process by addressing the concerns about economic stress, drug toxicity, and the emergence of resistance. Two million new leishmaniasis cases are reported annually, and >350 million people are at risk globally due to the parasite Leishmania. Trypanothione reductase (TryR) from the parasite-specific redox metabolism is a promising target. In the discipline of medicinal chemistry, benzimidazole is a strong pharmacophore and exhibits a broad range of biological activities. In the current study, benzimidazole derivatives were explored using computational, enzyme kinetics, biological activity, cytotoxic impact characterization, and in-silico ADME-Tox predictions, followed by their confirmation through in-vitro and animal experiments to discover novel inhibitors for TryR from Leishmania major. During rigorous in-silico screening, two benzimidazole derivatives were chosen for further experimentation. In-vitro testing revealed that compound C1 has a higher binding affinity for the TryR protein. Treatment with compound C1 caused significant morphological changes in the parasite, including size reduction, membrane blebbing, loss of motility, and improved anti-leishmanial efficacy. The compound C1 had significant anti-leishmanial potential against L. major promastigotes and demonstrated apoptosis-mediated leishmanicidal activity (apoptosis-like cell death). Furthermore, BALB/c female mice treated with C1 reduced parasite burden. Our findings depicts that C1 successfully lowered the parasite load and has a therapeutic impact on infected mice making C1 as a promising lead compound that, with additional modifications, may be exploited to create novel anti-leishmanial therapies.

An overview of the synthetic route to the marketed formulations of pyrimidine: A Review

Pyrimidine and its derivatives are a very important class of heterocyclic compounds that show interesting applications in the field of medicinal chemistry. Pyrimidine not only plays an important role as an organic reaction intermediate but also has a wide range of interesting biological activities viz. antibacterial, antifungal, anticancer, anti-inflammatory, antiviral, and antiprotozoal activity, etc. Numerous methods are available for the formation of pyrimidine derivatives have been reported in the literature. The advantage of pyrimidine as a starting material for different therapeutically potent derivatives has given momentum to this research. This review aims to report the new work on the synthesis of marketed drugs which consist of pyrimidine moiety.

In-silico molecular design of heterocyclic benzimidazole scaffolds as prospective anticancer agents

Benzimidazole is a valuable pharmacophore in the field of medicinal chemistry and exhibit wide spectrum of biological activity. Molecular docking technique is routinely used in modern drug discovery for understanding the drug-receptor interaction. The selected data set of synthesized benzimidazole compounds was evaluated for its in vitro anticancer activity against cancer cell lines (HCT116 and MCF7) by sulforhodamine B (SRB) assay. Further, molecular docking study of data set was carried out by Schrodinger-Maestro v11.5 using CDK-8 (PDB code: 5FGK) and ER-alpha (PDB code: 3ERT) as possible target for anticancer activity. Molecular docking results demonstrated that compounds 12, 16, N9, W20 and Z24 displayed good docking score with better interaction within crucial amino acids and corelate to their anticancer results. ADME results indicated that compounds 16, N9 and W20 have significant results within the close agreement of the Lipinski's rule of five and Qikprop rule within the range and these compounds may be taken as lead molecules for the discovery of new anticancer agents.