MedChemComm最新文献

Correction for ‘Chiral hydroxymethyl-1H,3H-pyrrolo[1,2-c]thiazoles: the search for selective p53-activating agents for colorectal cancer therapy’ by Mees M. Hendrikx et al., RSC Med. Chem., 2024, 15, 1652–1663, https://doi.org/10.1039/D4MD00076E.

A series of 2-(4-bromobenzyl) tethered 4-amino aryl/alkyl-5,6,7,8-tetrahydrobenzo[4,5]thieno[2,3-d]pyrimidines (7a–7u) were designed, synthesized, characterized and screened against a panel of cancer cell lines. Compound 7a, in particular, emerged as a potent antiproliferative agent against FaDu cells (HTB-43) with an IC₅₀ value of 1.73 μM. 7a induced morphological alterations in FaDu cells were observed via brightfield microscopy and DAPI staining, confirming cytotoxicity. Autophagy and apoptotic effects of 7a were confirmed by acridine orange staining, Rhodamine 123 staining, and western blot analysis, which revealed dose-dependent increases in LC3A/B and cleaved caspase-3 levels, respectively. Further, 7a impaired cell migration and colony formation, as demonstrated by scratch and clonogenic assays. Additionally, 7a reduced oxidative stress and induced G2/M phase cell cycle arrest in MCF-7 cells. 7a emerged as a dual topoisomerase I and II inhibitor, and results were supported by molecular docking and simulation studies. In anti-inflammatory studies, 7a exhibited selective inhibition of COX-2 over COX-1, supporting its dual anticancer and anti-inflammatory properties.

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a complex, incurable neurological condition characterized by cognitive decline, cholinergic neuron reduction, and neuronal loss. Its exact pathology remains uncertain, but multiple treatment hypotheses have emerged. The current treatments, single or combined, alleviate only symptoms and struggle to manage AD due to its multifaceted pathology. The developmental drugs target pivotal disease factors involved in the envisaged hypotheses and include targets such as amyloid aggregation, hyperphosphorylated tau proteins, and receptors like cholinergic, adrenergic, etc. Present-day research focuses on multi-target directed ligands (MTDLs), which inhibit multiple factors simultaneously, helping slow the disease's progression. This review attempts to collate the recent information related to proposed hypotheses for AD etiology. It systematically organizes the advances in various therapeutic options for AD, with a particular emphasis on clinical candidates. Also, it is expected to help medicinal chemists design novel AD treatments based on available information, which could be helpful to AD patients.

New rhodanine–thiazole clubbed compounds (7a–7l) were synthesised and characterised with various spectroscopy methods. The synthesised hybrids underwent in vitro HPA, HLAG inhibition, and peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-gamma (PPAR-γ) expression assays. Through the biological study, compound 7f showed promising inhibitory activity against HPA with an IC₅₀ value of 27.13 ± 1.02 μM and 7l exhibited better inhibition against HLAG with an IC₅₀ value of 24.21 ± 1.12 μM. In addition, Lineweaver–Burk plot analysis suggested that 7l and 7f behaved as a mixed type of HLAG and HPA inhibitor and further, compound 7f showed significant PPAR-γ expression as compared to controls in a dose dependent manner; the expression can be attributed to its mapped pharmacophoric features with a phase screen score of 1.28 and vector score of 0.62. The proteins modulated by compounds include AMY2A, PPAR, and GAA proteins via MAPK, PPAR signalling pathways identified by cluster analysis and justified by molecular docking studies and MD trajectory analysis to evaluate the binding orientation and stability of the molecules, and the energy profiles of the molecules, both in complex with the protein, were assessed using MM/GBSA and DFT calculations, respectively. Finally, the pharmacokinetic profile was determined using ADMET analysis. Thus, from the above findings, it may demonstrate that rhodanine–thiazole hybrids constitute promising candidates in the pursuit of developing newer oral antidiabetic agents.

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a progressive neurodegenerative disorder, characterized by the presence of extracellular amyloid plaques consisting of β-amyloid peptides (Aβ) and intracellular neurofibrillary tangles (NFTs) composed of hyperphosphorylated tau (pTau) protein in the brain. Genetic and animal studies strongly indicate that Aβ, tau and neuroinflammation play important roles in the pathogenesis of AD. Several staging models showed that NFTs correlated well with the disease progression. Positron emission tomography (PET) imaging has become a widely used non-invasive technique to image NFTs for early diagnosis of AD. Despite the remarkable progress made over the past few years, tau PET imaging is still challenging due to the nature of tau pathology and the technical aspects of PET imaging. Tau pathology often coexists with other proteinopathies, such as Aβ plaques and α-synuclein aggregates. Distinguishing tau-specific signals from other overlapping pathologies is difficult, especially in the context of AD, where multiple protein aggregates are present, as well as the spectrum of different tau isoforms (3R and 4R) and conformations. Moreover, tracers should ideally have optimal pharmacokinetic properties to penetrate the blood–brain barrier (BBB) while maintaining specificity, low toxicity, low non-specific binding, rapid uptake and clearance from the brain, and formation of no radiolabeled metabolites in the brain. On the other hand, Parkinson's disease (PD) is a progressive neurodegenerative movement disorder characterized by the abnormal accumulations of α-synuclein in neurons. Heterogeneity and the unclear pathogenesis of PD hinder early and accurate diagnosis of the disease for therapeutic development in clinical use. In this review, while referring to existing reviews, we focus on the design strategies and current progress in tau (NFTs) targeting new PET tracers for AD; evolution of non-AD tau targeting PET tracers for applications including progressive supranuclear paralysis (PSP) and corticobasal degeneration (CBD); new PET tracer development for α-synuclein aggregate imaging in PD and giving an outlook for future PET tracer development.

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is estimated to affect over 55 million people across the world. Small molecule treatment options are limited to symptom management with no impact on disease progression. The need for new protein targets and small molecule hit compounds is unmet and urgent. Hydroxysteroid 17-β dehydrogenase type 10 (17β-HSD10) is a mitochondrial enzyme known to bind amyloid beta, a hallmark of AD, and potentiate its toxicity to neurons. Identification of small molecules capable of interacting with 17β-HSD10 may drive drug discovery efforts for AD. The screening compound BCC0100281 (1), was previously identified as an inhibitor of 17β-HSD10. Herein we report the first synthetic access to the hit compound following a convergent pathway starting from simple heterocyclic building blocks. The compound was found to be toxic to ‘neuron-like’ cells, specifically those of neuroblastoma origin, providing a potential hit compound for cancer drug discovery, wherein the protein is known to be overexpressed. However, assay of synthetic intermediates identified novel scaffolds with effect to rescue amyloid beta-induced cytotoxicity, showcasing the power of organic synthesis and medicinal chemistry to optimize hit compounds.

Reverse transcriptase (RT) is an enzyme encoded by the genetic material of retroviruses. Viruses such as HIV and hepatitis B employ an enzyme reverse transcriptase (RT) to generate complementary DNA from the RNA template during reverse transcription. Thus, viruses replicate their genomes and proliferate within the host genome. In particular, researchers are concerned about the pathogenic viruses that cause numerous diseases through this mechanism. The retroviruses that cause diseases in humans include human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), which causes AIDS, and human T-cell lymphotropic virus I (HTLV-1), which causes leukemia. HIV has been the most devastating health problem for decades. The number of recorded HIV cases was found to be approximately 39 million worldwide in 2022. Acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS), most devastating disease caused by HIV-1 needs potent antiretroviral therapy for treatment. Among the effective treatments for AIDS, NNRTIs are key drugs in highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART). Heterocyclic small molecules play an important role in drug discovery for treatment of HIV-1 infection. Particularly, diarylpyrimidines class of drugs have shown promising activity. In this review, anti-HIV-1 activity and RT inhibitory activity of heterocycle small molecules focusing mostly on diarylpyrimidines was discussed. Furthermore, structure–activity relationship was discussed emphasizing most potent molecules.

The detection and quantification of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) are crucial due to their widespread use and potential impact on human health and the environment. This review provides a comprehensive survey of the recent advancements in sensing technologies for NSAIDs, focusing on molecular receptors and nanostructured assemblies. Molecular receptors based on different fluorescent molecules such as anthracene, naphthalimide, squaraine, quinoline, BINOL, etc. offer high selectivity and sensitivity for NSAID detection. In parallel, nanostructured assemblies including CdSe/ZnS, Cd/S quantum dots (QDs), carbon dot-containing imprinted polymers, Ag and Au nanoparticles (NPs), hydrogel-embedded chemosensors, etc. were utilized for NSAID detection. This review highlights the different binding pathways with the change of various photophysical properties combining molecular recognition elements with nanomaterials to develop innovative sensors that achieve rapid, sensitive, and selective detection of NSAIDs. The review also discusses current challenges and future prospects in the field and based on reported designed receptors and nanostructured assemblies. To the best of our knowledge, no reviews have been reported on this topic so far. Thus, this review will fruitfully guide researchers to design various new molecular receptors and nanostructured materials to detect NSAIDs.

Developing sigma-1 receptor (S1R) modulators is considered a valuable therapeutic strategy to counteract neurodegeneration, cancer progression, and viral infections, including COVID-19. In this context, in silico tools capable of accurately predicting S1R affinity are highly desirable. Herein, we present a panel of 25 classifiers trained on a curated dataset of high-quality bioactivity data of small molecules, experimentally tested as potential S1R modulators. All data were extracted from ChEMBL v33, and the models were built using five different fingerprints and machine-learning algorithms. Remarkably, most of the developed classifiers demonstrated good predictive performance. The best-performing model, which achieved an AUC of 0.90, was developed using the support vector machine algorithm with Morgan fingerprints. To provide additional, user-friendly information for medicinal chemists in the rational design of S1R modulators, two independent explainable artificial intelligence (XAI) approaches were employed, namely Shapley Additive exPlanations (SHAP) and Contrastive Explanation. The top-performing model is accessible through a user-friendly web platform, SIGMAP (https://www.ba.ic.cnr.it/softwareic/sigmap/), specifically developed for this purpose. With its intuitive interface, robust predictive power, and implemented XAI approaches, SIGMAP serves as a valuable tool for the rational design of new and more effective S1R modulators.

PROTACs are an emerging therapeutic approach towards targeted protein degradation. This article examines the leading examples of this modality that are in clinical development through the prism of their physicochemical properties. In particular, the optimisation of the various components of PROTACs together with the difficulties faced by medicinal chemists seeking to achieve oral bioavailability in this challenging space are outlined. Guidance, opinion and advice based on the authors' own experiences in this area are offered in the hope this may be useful to others working in this fascinating frontier of drug discovery.