Discovery of pyrazolones as novel carboxylesterase 2 inhibitors that potently inhibit the adipogenesis in cells

Carboxylesterase 2 (CES2) is one of the most important Phase I drug metabolizing enzymes in the carboxylesterase family. It plays crucial roles in the bioavailability of oral ester prodrugs and the therapeutic effect of some anticancer drugs such as irinotecan (CPT11) and capecitabine. In addition to the well-known roles of CES2 in xenobiotic metabolism, the enzyme also participates in endogenous metabolism and the production of lipids. In this study, we synthesized a series of pyrazolones and assayed their inhibitory effects against CES2 in vitro. Structure-activity relationship analysis of these pyrazolones reveals that the introduction of 4-methylphenyl unit (R¹), 4-methylbenzyl (R²) and cyclohexyl (R³) moieties are beneficial for CES2 inhibition. Guided by these SARs results, 1-cyclohexyl-4-(4-methylbenzyl)-3-p-tolyl-1H- pyrazol-5(4H)-one (27) was designed and synthesized. Further investigations demonstrated that the compound 27 exhibited stronger CES2 inhibition activity with a lower IC₅₀ value (0.13 μM). The inhibition kinetic study demonstrated that compound 27 inhibited the hydrolysis of CES2-fluorescein diacetate (FD) through non-competitive inhibition. In addition, the molecular docking showed that the core of pyrazolone, the cyclohexane moiety, 4-methylbenzyl and 4-methylphenyl groups in compound 27 all played important roles with the amino acid residues of CSE2. Also, compound 27 could inhibit adipocyte adipogenesis induced by mouse preadipocytes. In brief, we designed and synthesized a novel pyrazolone compound with a strong inhibitory ability on CES2 and could inhibit the adipogenesis induced by mouse preadipocytes, which can be served as a promising lead compound for the development of more potent pyrazolone-type CES2 inhibitors, and also used as a potential tool for exploring the biological functions of CES2 in human being.

Therapeutic Journey of 5-Pyrazolones as a Versatile Scaffold: A Review

A sizeable proportion of currently marketed drugs come from heterocycles. The heterocyclic moiety 5-pyrazolone is well known five membered ring containing nitrogen. Derivatives of this wonder nucleus have exhibited activities as diverse as antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory, analgesic, antidepressant, anticonvulsant, antidiabetic, antihyperlipidemic, antiviral, antitubercular, antioxidant, anticancer and antiviral including action against severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) or 3C protease inhibitor. A number of drugs based on this motif have already made it to the market. Standard texts and literature on medicinal chemistry cite different approaches for the synthesis of 5-pyrazolones. The present review provides an insight view to 5-pyrazolone synthesis, their biological profile and structure activity relationship studies.

Spectral, thermal, antimicrobial studies for silver(I) complexes of pyrazolone derivatives

Background

Synthesize new complexes of Ag(I) to enhance efficacy or stability and also, pharmacological activities on the operation of pyrazolone's biological properties.

Results

Efficient and high yielding pathways starting from the versatile and readily available 3-methyl-1-phenyl-5-pyrazolone by Knoevenagel condensation of a sequence of 4-arylidene-3-methyl-1-phenyl-5-pyrazolone derivatives (2a-c) have been formed by the reaction of various substituted aromatic aldehydes Used as ligands to synthesize Ag(I) chelates. Synthesized compounds and their complexes have been characterized by elemental analysis, magnetic and spectroscopic methods (IR, ¹³C, ¹HNMR, mass) and thermal analysis. The spectrophotometric determinations suggest distorted octaedral geometry for all complexes. Both ligands and their metal complexes have also been tested for their antibacterial and antifungal efficacy.

Conclusions

Newly synthesized compounds have shown potent antimicrobial activity. The results showed that the complex 's high activity was higher than its free ligands, and that Ag(I)-L₃ had the highest activity.

Design, efficient synthesis and molecular docking of some novel thiazolyl-pyrazole derivatives as anticancer agents

Pyrazoles, thiazoles and fused thiazoles have been reported to possess many biological activities. 3-Methyl-5-oxo-4-(2-arylhydrazono)-4,5-dihydro-1H-pyrazole-1-carbothioamides 3a,b (obtained from the reaction of ethyl 3-oxo-2-(2-arylhydrazono)butanoates 1a,b with thiosemicarbazide) could be transformed into a variety of thiazolyl-pyrazole derivatives 6a–h, 10a–c, 15a–c, 17, 19 and 21 via their reaction with a diversity hydrazonoyl chlorides as well as bromoacetyl derivatives. Moreover, the computational studies were carried out for all new compounds. The results indicated that five compounds showed promising binding affinities (10a: − 3.4 kcal/mol, 6d: − 3.0 kcal/mol, 15a: − 2.2 kcal/mol, 3a: − 1.6 kcal/mol, and 21: − 1.3 kcal/mol) against the active site of the epidermal growth factor receptor kinase (EGFR). The cytotoxicity of the potent products 3a, 6d, 10a, 15a, and 21 was examined against human liver carcinoma cell line (HepG-2) and revealed activities close to Doxorubicin standard drug. There was an understanding between the benefits of restricting affinities and the data obtained from the practical anticancer screening of the tested compounds.

Synthesis and improved photochromic properties of pyrazolones in the solid state by incorporation of halogen

Four novel photochromic pyrazolones have been prepared by introducing halogen atoms as substituents on the benzene ring. All as-synthesized compounds exhibited excellent reversible photochromic performances in the solid state. Upon UV light irradiation, the as-synthesized compounds can change their structures from E-form to K-form with yellow coloration. Further processed by heating, they rapidly reverted to their initial states at 120°С. Their photo-response and thermal bleaching kinetics were detailed investigated by UV absorption spectra. The results showed that the time constants were higher than that of our previously reported compounds at least one order of magnitude and the rate constants of the as-synthesized compounds were significantly influenced by the size and electronegativity of different halogen atoms. The fluorescence emission were modulated in a high degree via photoisomerization of pyrazolones, which might be due to the efficient energy transfer from E-form to K-form isomers for their partly overlaps between their E-form absorption spectra and K-form fluorescence spectra.

Pharmaceutical load in sewage sludge and biochar produced by hydrothermal carbonization

We investigated the removal of twelve pharmaceuticals in sewage sludge by hydrothermal carbonization (HTC), which has emerged as a technology for improving the quality of organic waste materials producing a valuable biochar material. In this study, the HTC converted sewage sludge samples to a biochar product within 4h at a temperature of 210 °C and a resulting pressure of about 15 bar. Initial pharmaceutical load of the sewage sludge was investigated as well as the residual concentrations in biochar produced from spiked and eight native sewage sludge samples from three waste water treatment plants. Additionally, the solid contents of source material and product were compared, which showed a considerable increase of the solid content after filtration by HTC. All pharmaceuticals except sulfamethoxazole, which remained below the limit of quantification, frequently occurred in the investigated sewage sludges in the μg/kg dry matter (DM) range. Diclofenac, carbamazepine, metoprolol and propranolol were detected in all sludge samples with a maximum concentration of 800 μg/kgDM for metoprolol. HTC was investigated regarding its contaminant removal efficiency using spiked sewage sludge. Pharmaceutical concentrations were reduced for seven compounds by 39% (metoprolol) to≥97% (carbamazepine). In native biochar samples the four compounds phenazone, carbamazepine, metoprolol and propranolol were detected, which confirmed that the HTC process can reduce the load of micropollutants. In contrast to the other investigated compounds phenazone concentration increased, which was further addressed in thermal behaviour studies including three structurally similar potential precursors.