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Corman HN, McNamara CW, Bakowski MA. Drug Discovery for Cutaneous Leishmaniasis: A Review of Developments in the Past 15 Years. Microorganisms 2023; 11:2845. [PMID: 38137989 PMCID: PMC10745741 DOI: 10.3390/microorganisms11122845] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/01/2023] [Revised: 11/21/2023] [Accepted: 11/22/2023] [Indexed: 12/24/2023] Open
Abstract
Leishmaniasis is a group of vector-borne, parasitic diseases caused by over 20 species of the protozoan Leishmania spp. The three major disease classifications, cutaneous, visceral, and mucocutaneous, have a range of clinical manifestations from self-healing skin lesions to hepatosplenomegaly and mucosal membrane damage to fatality. As a neglected tropical disease, leishmaniasis represents a major international health challenge, with nearly 350 million people living at risk of infection a year. The current chemotherapeutics used to treat leishmaniasis have harsh side effects, prolonged and costly treatment regimens, as well as emerging drug resistance, and are predominantly used for the treatment of visceral leishmaniasis. There is an undeniable need for the identification and development of novel chemotherapeutics targeting cutaneous leishmaniasis (CL), largely ignored by concerted drug development efforts. CL is mostly non-lethal and the most common presentation of this disease, with nearly 1 million new cases reported annually. Recognizing this unaddressed need, substantial yet fragmented progress in early drug discovery efforts for CL has occurred in the past 15 years and was outlined in this review. However, further work needs to be carried out to advance early discovery candidates towards the clinic. Importantly, there is a paucity of investment in the translation and development of therapies for CL, limiting the emergence of viable solutions to deal with this serious and complex international health problem.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hannah N. Corman
- Calibr at Scripps Research, La Jolla, CA 92037, USA; (C.W.M.); (M.A.B.)
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Sousa JPAD, Sousa JMSD, Rodrigues RRL, Nunes TADL, Machado YAA, Araujo ACD, da Silva IGM, Barros-Cordeiro KB, Báo SN, Alves MMDM, Mendonça-Junior FJB, Rodrigues KADF. Antileishmanial activity of 2-amino-thiophene derivative SB-200. Int Immunopharmacol 2023; 123:110750. [PMID: 37536181 DOI: 10.1016/j.intimp.2023.110750] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/13/2023] [Revised: 06/28/2023] [Accepted: 07/30/2023] [Indexed: 08/05/2023]
Abstract
Leishmaniasis, presenting the highest number of cases worldwide is one of the most serious Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs). Clinical manifestations are intrinsically related to the host's immune response making immunomodulatory substances the target of numerous studies on antileishmanial activity. The currently available drugs used for treatment present various problems including high toxicity, low efficacy, and associated drug resistance. The search for therapeutic alternatives is urgent, and in this context, thiophene derivatives appear to be a promising therapeutic alternative (many have shown promising anti-leishmanial activity). The objective of this study was to investigate the antileishmanial activity of the 2-amino-thiophenic derivative SB-200. The thiophenic derivative was effective in inhibiting the growth of Leishmania braziliensis, Leishmania major, and Leishmania infantum promastigotes, obtaining respective IC50 values of 4.25 μM, 4.65 μM, and 3.96 μM. For L. infantum, it was demonstrated that the antipromastigote effect of SB-200 is associated with cell membrane integrity losses, and with morphological changes observed during scanning and transmission electron microscopy. Cytotoxicity was performed for J774.A1 macrophages and VERO cells, to obtain a CC50 of 42.52 μM and a SI of 10.74 for macrophages and a CC50 of 39.2 μM and an SI of 9.89 for VERO cells. The anti-amastigote activity of SB-200 revealed an IC50 of 2.85 μM and an SI of 14.97 against macrophages and SI of 13.8 for VERO cells. The anti-amastigote activity of SB-200 is associated with in vitro immunomodulation. For acute toxicity, SB-200 against Zophobas morio larvae permitted 100% survival. We conclude that the 2-amino-thiophenic derivative SB-200 is a promising candidate for in vivo anti-leishmania drug tests to evaluate its activity, efficacy, and safety.
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Affiliation(s)
- João Paulo Araujo de Sousa
- Infectious Disease Laboratory, Campus Ministro Reis Velloso, Federal University of Parnaíba Delta, 64202-020 Parnaíba, PI, Brasil
| | - Julyanne Maria Saraiva de Sousa
- Infectious Disease Laboratory, Campus Ministro Reis Velloso, Federal University of Parnaíba Delta, 64202-020 Parnaíba, PI, Brasil
| | - Raiza Raianne Luz Rodrigues
- Infectious Disease Laboratory, Campus Ministro Reis Velloso, Federal University of Parnaíba Delta, 64202-020 Parnaíba, PI, Brasil
| | - Thais Amanda de Lima Nunes
- Infectious Disease Laboratory, Campus Ministro Reis Velloso, Federal University of Parnaíba Delta, 64202-020 Parnaíba, PI, Brasil
| | - Yasmim Alves Aires Machado
- Infectious Disease Laboratory, Campus Ministro Reis Velloso, Federal University of Parnaíba Delta, 64202-020 Parnaíba, PI, Brasil
| | - Alexandre Carvalho de Araujo
- Infectious Disease Laboratory, Campus Ministro Reis Velloso, Federal University of Parnaíba Delta, 64202-020 Parnaíba, PI, Brasil
| | - Ingrid Gracielle Martins da Silva
- Microscopy and Microanalysis Laboratory, Department of Cell Biology, Institute of Biological Sciences, University of Brasília, Brasília, Brazil
| | - Karine Brenda Barros-Cordeiro
- Microscopy and Microanalysis Laboratory, Department of Cell Biology, Institute of Biological Sciences, University of Brasília, Brasília, Brazil
| | - Sônia Nair Báo
- Microscopy and Microanalysis Laboratory, Department of Cell Biology, Institute of Biological Sciences, University of Brasília, Brasília, Brazil
| | - Michel Muálem de Moraes Alves
- Laboratory of Antileishmania Activity, Medicinal Plants Research Center, Federal University of Piauí, Teresina 64049-550, Brazil
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Luna IS, Souza TAD, da Silva MS, Franca Rodrigues KAD, Scotti L, Scotti MT, Mendonça-Junior FJB. Computer-Aided drug design of new 2-amino-thiophene derivatives as anti-leishmanial agents. Eur J Med Chem 2023; 250:115223. [PMID: 36848847 DOI: 10.1016/j.ejmech.2023.115223] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/29/2022] [Revised: 02/17/2023] [Accepted: 02/20/2023] [Indexed: 02/23/2023]
Abstract
The leishmaniasis is a neglected disease caused by a group of protozoan parasites from the genus Leishmania whose treatment is limited, obsolete, toxic, and ineffective in certain cases. These characteristics motivate researchers worldwide to plan new therapeutic alternatives for the treatment of leishmaniasis, where the use of cheminformatics tools applied to computer-assisted drug design has allowed research to make great advances in the search for new drugs candidates. In this study, a series of 2-amino-thiophene (2-AT) derivatives was screened virtually using QSAR tools, ADMET filters and prediction models, allowing direct the synthesis of compounds, which were evaluated in vitro against promastigotes and axenic amastigotes of Leishmania amazonensis. The combination of different descriptors and machine learning methods led to obtaining robust and predictive QSAR models, which was obtained from a dataset composed of 1862 compounds extracted from the ChEMBL database, with correct classification rates ranging from 0.53 (for amastigotes) to 0.91 (for promastigotes), allowing to select eleven 2-AT derivatives, which do not violate Lipinski's rules, exhibit good druglikeness, and with probability ≤70% of potential activity against the two evolutionary forms of the parasite. All compounds were properly synthesized and 8 of them were shown to be active at least against one of the evolutionary forms of the parasite with IC50 values lower than 10 μM, being more active than the reference drug meglumine antimoniate, and showing low or no citotoxicity against macrophage J774.A1 for the most part. Compounds 8CN and DCN-83, respectively, are the most active against promastigote and amastigote forms, with IC50 values of 1.20 and 0.71 μM, and selectivity indexes (SI) of 36.58 and 119.33. Structure Activity Relationship (SAR) study was carried out and allowed to identify some favorable and/or essential substitution patterns for the leishmanial activity of 2-AT derivatives. Taken together, these findings demonstrate that the use of ligand-based virtual screening proved to be quite effective and saved time, effort, and money in the selection of potential anti-leishmanial agents, and confirm, once again that 2-AT derivatives are promising hit compounds for the development of new anti-leishmanial agents.
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Affiliation(s)
- Isadora Silva Luna
- Laboratory of Synthesis and Drug Delivery, State University of Paraiba, João Pessoa, PB, Brazil; Post-Graduation Program in Natural and Synthetic Bioactive Products, Federal University of Paraiba, João Pessoa, PB, Brazil
| | - Thalisson Amorim de Souza
- Multiuser Laboratory Center of Characterization and Analysis, Federal University of Paraiba, João Pessoa, PB, Brazil
| | - Marcelo Sobral da Silva
- Multiuser Laboratory Center of Characterization and Analysis, Federal University of Paraiba, João Pessoa, PB, Brazil
| | | | - Luciana Scotti
- Post-Graduation Program in Natural and Synthetic Bioactive Products, Federal University of Paraiba, João Pessoa, PB, Brazil
| | - Marcus Tullius Scotti
- Post-Graduation Program in Natural and Synthetic Bioactive Products, Federal University of Paraiba, João Pessoa, PB, Brazil
| | - Francisco Jaime Bezerra Mendonça-Junior
- Laboratory of Synthesis and Drug Delivery, State University of Paraiba, João Pessoa, PB, Brazil; Post-Graduation Program in Natural and Synthetic Bioactive Products, Federal University of Paraiba, João Pessoa, PB, Brazil.
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Santana Filho PC, Brasil da Silva M, Malaquias da Silva BN, Fazolo T, Dorneles GP, Braun de Azeredo J, Alf da Rosa M, Rodrigues Júnior LC, Peres A, Santos Canto RF, Torres Romão PR. Seleno-indoles trigger reactive oxygen species and mitochondrial dysfunction in Leishmania amazonensis. Tetrahedron 2023. [DOI: 10.1016/j.tet.2023.133329] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 02/24/2023]
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