Ferrocene Derivatives as New Generation of Antimalarial Agents: Opportunity or Illusion?

Despite significant scientific progress over the last two decades, malaria remains a global burden that causes thousands of deaths every year. In the absence of effective and practical preventive measures, the only current option for reducing the mortality and morbidity of malaria is chemotherapy. However, due to the minimal stock of active antiparasitic analogs, issues of toxicity, and the repeated appearance of drug resistance, scientists must broaden the arsenal of existing therapies beyond conventional medicinal chemistry. To curb this menace, a series of potential metal-based hybrids have been synthesized and screened. Ferrocene is one of the potent organometallic candidates and the hybridization of ferrocene with other pharmacophores results in compounds with enhanced biological activities. Many researchers have reported the ferrocene compounds as potent pharmacophores and useful as anticancer and antimalarial agents when hybridized with other pharmaceutical hybrids. Drug, such as Ferroquine (FQ, SSR97193), is currently the most advanced organometallic compound developed from the hybridization of ferrocene and chloroquine and has demonstrated great potency in clinical trials against both drug-sensitive and drug-resistant malaria. Not only ferroquine but its derivatives have shown significant activity as antimalarial agents. The present review focuses on the discovery of FQ, the hypothesis of its mode of action, and recent clinical trials of ferrocene compounds as a new class of antimalarial agents. The structure-activity relationship (SAR) of ferrocene derivatives is also discussed to provide insight into the rational design of more effective antimalarial candidates. Finally, efforts have been made to discuss the future expectations for ferrocene-based antimalarial drugs.

Fluorescent probe 7-(prop-2-yn-1-yloxy)-2H-chromen-2-one: Experimental and DFT based approach to photophysical properties

Compound 7-(prop-2-yn-1-yloxy)-2H-chromen-2-one was synthesized by Pechmann condensation reaction and characterized by various spectroscopic techniques. The structure of title compound was confirmed by single crystal X-ray diffraction. The compound crystallized in the orthorhombic system with P 21 21 21 space group and the corresponding lattice parameters were found to be a=4.0138 (11) Å, α=90°; b=23.536 (6) Å, β=90°; c=10.93 (2) Å, γ=90°. The crystal packing of molecule showed that intermolecular hydrogen bonds C3-H3⋯O3 [D=3.53 Å], C-13-H13⋯O2 [D=3.67 Å] and intermolecular short interaction between C1-H1⋯C1-H1 [2.68 Å] forms a dimeric unit which finally stabilizes the crystal packing in three dimensional network in the molecule. Absorption and emission spectra shows that compound is fluorescent with good Stoke shift values ranging between 57 and 62 nm. Thermal analysis further supports by TGA, DTA. The photophysical results show that the compound exhibits change in fluorescence quantum yield with change in solvent polarity. The structural parameters and the vibrational wave numbers obtained from the optimized geometry of the compound from DFT-B3LYP calculations employing 6-311G (d,p) basis set are in good agreement with the experimental data. UV-Vis spectrum calculated by employing time dependent density functional theory (TD-DFT) is also in very good agreement with the experiment for all solvents.

Expedient and efficient one pot synthesis of trifluoroethyl ethers from metal free 2,4,6-tris-(2,2,2-trifluoro-ethoxy)-[1,3,5] triazene

An efficient synthesis of fluorinated alkyl and aryl ethers was achieved by the use of s-triazene derived fluorinated reagent 2,4,6-tris-(2,2,2-trifluoro-ethoxy)-[1,3,5] triazene (TriTFET).