Recent advances in the development of nitrogen-containing heterocyclic Anti-Alzheimer’s agents

Abstract:

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) remains one of the major neurodegenerative diseases overwhelming the world today. Alzheimer’s is the most complicated as well as perplexing disease encountering serious global health issues. Alzheimer’s disease is well characterized as a general cause of dementia, which includes issues with memory, language, problem-solving, and other cognitive behaviours, such as disabled perception as well as trouble talking due to degeneration of neurons. According to the latest report, there are about 44 million individuals who are currently suffering from dementia, which has been prophesied to extensively grow up to 3-fold by 2050. Alzheimer’s disease is usually triggered by numerous associated factors, including depleted amount of acetylcholine (ACh), excessive aggregation of β-amyloid peptide (Aβ), tau hyperphosphorylation with neurofibrillary tangle formation as well as deposition of feeble plaques in a specific portion of the brain (hippocampus and cortex). Besides these superior factors, sometimes AD can be induced or become complex due to several reasons, such as inflammatory mechanisms and oxidative stress. Furthermore, heterocyclic scaffolds comprise assorted implications in the drug design and development process. Heterocycles have also elicited their evolving role as core scaffolds in numerous synthetic derivatives with potent anti-Alzheimer’s potential. There are only limited drugs that are present in the market to treat Alzheimer’s disease in an efficacious manner. Hence, the identification, design, and development of new anti-Alzheimer’s drugs is therefore an emerging need to eradicate complex clinical indications associated with Alzheimer’s disease. This review aims to summarize various recent advancements in the medicinal chemistry of heterocycle-based compounds with the following objectives: (1) To represent inclusive literature reports describing the anti-Alzheimer’s potential of heterocyclic derivatives; (2) To cast light on recent advancements in the medicinal chemistry of heterocyclic compounds endowed with their therapeutic potential against Alzheimer’s disease; (3) To summarize the comprehensive correlation of structure-activity relationship (SAR) with the pharmacological responses, including in silico and mechanistic studies to provide ideas related to design and development of lead molecules.

A medicinal chemist's perspective towards structure activity relationship of heterocycle based anti-cancer agents

AIM

To describe structure activity relationship of heterocyclic derivatives with multi-targeted anticancer activity.

OBJECTIVES

With the following goals in mind, this review tries to describe significant recent advances in the medicinal chemistry of heterocycle-based compounds: (1) To shed light on recent literature focused on heterocyclic derivatives' anticancer potential; (2) To discuss recent advances in the medicinal chemistry of heterocyclic derivatives, as well as their biological implications for cancer eradication; (3) To summarise the comprehensive correlation of structure activity relationship (SAR) with pharmacological outcomes in cancer therapy.

BACKGROUND

Cancer remains one of the major serious health issues devastating the world today. Cancer is a complex disease in which improperly altered cells proliferate at an uncontrolled, rapid, and severe rate. Variables such as poor dietary habits, high stress, age, and smoking, can all contribute to the development of cancer. Cancer can affect almost any organ or tissue, although the brain, breast, liver, and colon are the most frequently affected organs. From several years, surgical operations and irradiation are in use along with chemotherapy as a primary treatment of cancer but still effective treatment of cancer remains a huge challenge. Chemotherapy is now one of the most effective strategies to eradicate cancer, although it has been shown to have a number of cytotoxic and unfavourable effects on normal cells. Despite all of these cancer treatments, there are several other targets for anticancer drugs. Cancer can be effectively eradicated by focusing on these targets, which include both cell-specific and receptor-specific targets such as tyrosine kinase receptors (TKIs). Heterocyclic scaffolds also have a variety of applications in drug development and are a common moiety in the pharmaceutical, agrochemical, and textile industries.

METHODS

The association between structural activity relationship data of many powerful compounds and their anticancer potential in vitro and in vivo has been studied. SAR of powerful heterocyclic compounds can also be generated using molecular docking simulations, as reported vastly in literature.

CONCLUSIONS

Heterocycles have a wide range of applications, from natural compounds to synthesised derivatives with powerful anticancer properties. To avoid cytotoxicity or unfavourable effects on normal mammalian cells due to a lack of selectivity towards the target site, as well as to reduce the occurrence of drug resistance, safer anticancer lead compounds with higher potency and lower cytotoxicity are needed. This review emphasizes on design and development of heterocyclic lead compounds with promising anticancer potential.

Recent advancements in the medicinal chemistry of bacterial type II topoisomerase inhibitors

Replication proteins are sought as a potential targets for antimicrobial agents. Despite their promising target characteristics, only topoisomerase II inhibitors targeting DNA gyrase and/or topoisomerase IV have reached clinical use. Topoisomerases are the enzymes that are essential for cellular functions and various biological activities. A wide range of natural and synthetic compounds have been identified as potential topoisomerase inhibitors but the resistance is most commonly found in these drugs. The emergence of FQ resistance has increased the need for the development of novel topoisomerase inhibitors with efficacy and high potency against FQ-resistant strains. Besides structural modifications of existing FQ scaffolds, novel non-quinolone topoisomerase II inhibitors, known as novel bacterial topoisomerase inhibitors, have been developed which showed remarkable inhibitory activity against DNA gyrase/topoisomerase IV or both with an improved spectrum of antibacterial potency including drug-resistant strains. This review aims to summarize various recent advancements in the medicinal chemistry of topoisomerase inhibitors with the following objectives: (1) To represent inclusive data on types of topoisomerases and various marketed topoisomerase inhibitors as drugs; (2) To discuss the recent advances in the medicinal chemistry of various topoisomerase inhibitors (DNA gyrase and topo IV) belonging to different structural classes as potential antibacterial agents; (3) To summarizes the structure activity relationship (SAR) including in silico and mechanistic studies to afford ideas and to provide focused direction for the development of new chemical entities which are effective against drug-resistant bacterial pathogens and biofilms.

Recent advancements in the development of bioactive pyrazoline derivatives

Pyrazolines remain privileged heterocycles in drug discovery. 2-Pyrazoline scaffold has been proven as a ubiquitous motif which is present in a number of pharmacologically important drug molecules such as antipyrine, ramifenazone, ibipinabant, axitinib etc. They have been widely explored by the scientific community and are reported to possess wide spectrum of biological activities. For combating unprecedented diseases and worldwide increasing drug resistance, 2-pyrazoline has been tackled as a fascinating pharmacophore to generate new molecules with improved potency and lesser toxicity along with desired pharmacokinetic profile. This review aims to summarizes various recent advancements in the medicinal chemistry of pyrazoline based compounds with the following objectives: (1) To represent inclusive data on pyrazoline based marketed drugs as well as therapeutic candidates undergoing preclinical and clinical developments; (2) To discuss recent advances in the medicinal chemistry of pyrazoline derivatives with their numerous biological significances for the eradication of various diseases; (3) Summarizes structure-activity relationships (SAR) including in silico and mechanistic studies to afford ideas for the design and development of novel compounds with desired therapeutic implications.