Privileged Scaffolds for Potent and Specific Inhibitors of Mono-ADP-Ribosylating PARPs

The identification of new targets to address unmet medical needs, better in a personalized way, is an urgent necessity. The introduction of PARP1 inhibitors into therapy, almost ten years ago, has represented a step forward this need being an innovate cancer treatment through a precision medicine approach. The PARP family consists of 17 members of which PARP1 that works by poly-ADP ribosylating the substrate is the sole enzyme so far exploited as therapeutic target. Most of the other members are mono-ADP-ribosylating (mono-ARTs) enzymes, and recent studies have deciphered their pathophysiological roles which appear to be very extensive with various potential therapeutic applications. In parallel, a handful of mono-ARTs inhibitors emerged that have been collected in a perspective on 2022. After that, additional very interesting compounds were identified highlighting the hot-topic nature of this research field and prompting an update. From the present review, where we have reported only mono-ARTs inhibitors endowed with the appropriate profile of pharmacological tools or drug candidate, four privileged scaffolds clearly stood out that constitute the basis for further drug discovery campaigns.

Ethionamide and Prothionamide Based Coumarinyl-Thiazole Derivatives: Synthesis, Antitubercular Activity, Toxicity Investigations and Molecular Docking Studies

The goal of this research work was to prepare and evaluate the antitubercular (anti-TB) activity of ethionamide (ETH) and prothionamide (PTH) based coumarinyl-thiazole derivatives. ETH and PTH were reacted with coumarin intermediates (3a-3e) to provide the target compounds (4a-4e and 4f-4j, respectively). Spectral studies confirmed the assigned structures of 4a-4j. The Microplate Alamar Blue Assay was utilized to evaluate the anti-TB activity of compounds 4a-4j against Mycobacterium tuberculosis H37Rv strain in comparison to ETH, PTH, isoniazid (INH), and pyrazinamide (PYZ) as standard drugs. The cytotoxicity studies were carried out versus HepG2 and Vero cell lines. In addition. molecular docking studies of 4a-4j concerning the DprE1 enzyme and the in-silico evaluation of physicochemical and pharmacokinetic parameters were performed. Compounds 4a, 4b, 4f, and 4g displayed equal minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) values in comparison to INH (3.125 μg/ml) and PYZ (3.125 μg/ml), whereas 4c-4e and 4h-4j displayed better MIC values (1.562 μg/mL) than INH and PYZ. All compounds presented better anti-TB potential than ETH (6.25 μg/mL) and PTH (6.25 μg/mL). The studies of toxicity revealed that 4a-4j were safe up to 300 μg/mL concentration versus Vero and HepG2 cell lines. The molecular docking studies suggested that 4a-4j could possess anti-TB activity through the inhibition of the DprE1 enzyme. The in silico studies showed that 4a-4j followed Lipinski's rule (drug-likeliness) and exhibited better gastrointestinal absorption than BTZ043 and macozinone. In conclusion, the ETH and PTH-based coumarinyl-thiazole template can help developing selective DprE1 enzyme inhibitors as potent anti-TB agents.