Discovery of 3-[(4,5,7-trifluorobenzothiazol-2-yl)methyl]indole-N-acetic acid (lidorestat) and congeners as highly potent and selective inhibitors of aldose reductase for treatment of chronic diabetic complications

Cs2CO3 promoted direct C–H bond sulfenylation of imidazo[1,2-a]pyridines and related heteroarenes in ionic liquid

Cs₂CO₃-promoted sulfenylation of imidazo[1,2-a]pyridines in ionic liquid.

Modulation of aldose reductase inhibition by halogen bond tuning

In this paper, we studied a designed series of aldose reductase (AR) inhibitors. The series was derived from a known AR binder, which had previously been shown to form a halogen bond between its bromine atom and the oxygen atom of the Thr-113 side chain of AR. In the series, the strength of the halogen bond was modulated by two factors, namely bromine-iodine substitution and the fluorination of the aromatic ring in several positions. The role of the single halogen bond in AR-ligand binding was elucidated by advanced binding free energy calculations involving the semiempirical quantum chemical Hamiltonian. The results were complemented with ultrahigh-resolution X-ray crystallography and IC50 measurements. All of the AR inhibitors studied were shown by X-ray crystallography to bind in an identical manner. Further, it was demonstrated that it was possible to decrease the IC50 value by about 1 order of magnitude by tuning the strength of the halogen bond by a monoatomic substitution. The calculations revealed that the protein-ligand interaction energy increased upon the substitution of iodine for bromine or upon the addition of electron-withdrawing fluorine atoms to the ring. However, the effect on the binding affinity was found to be more complex due to the change of the solvation/desolvation properties within the ligand series. The study shows that it is possible to modulate the strength of a halogen bond in a protein-ligand complex as was designed based on the previous studies of low-molecular-weight complexes.

Discovery of new selective human aldose reductase inhibitors through virtual screening multiple binding pocket conformations

Aldose reductase reduces glucose to sorbitol. It plays a key role in many of the complications arising from diabetes. Thus, aldose reductase inhibitors (ARI) have been identified as promising therapeutic agents for treating such complications of diabetes, as neuropathy, nephropathy, retinopathy, and cataracts. In this paper, a virtual screening protocol applied to a library of compounds in house has been utilized to discover novel ARIs. IC50's were determined for 15 hits that inhibited ALR2 to greater than 50% at 50 μM, and ten of these have an IC50 of 10 μM or less, corresponding to a rather substantial hit rate of 14% at this level. The specificity of these compounds relative to their cross-reactivity with human ALR1 was also assessed by inhibition assays. This resulted in identification of novel inhibitors with IC50's comparable to the commercially available drug, epalrestat, and greater than an order of magnitude better selectivity.

A copper-catalyzed synthesis of 3-aroylindoles via a sp3 C-H bond activation followed by C-C and C-O bond formation

An efficient Cu(I)-catalyzed synthesis of 3-aroylindoles has been achieved from o-alkynylated N,N-dimethylamines via a sp(3) C-H bond activation α to the nitrogen atom followed by an intramolecular nucleophilic attack with the alkyne using an aqueous solution of tert-butyl hydroperoxide (TBHP) as the oxidant. In this tandem catalytic synthesis of 3-aroylindoles both C-C and C-O bonds are installed at the expense of two sp(3) C-H bond cleavages.

Medicinal significance of benzothiazole scaffold: an insight view

Heterocycles bearing nitrogen, sulphur and thiazole moieties constitute the core structure of a number of biologically interesting compounds. Benzothiazole, a group of xenobiotic compounds containing a benzene ring fused with a thiazole ring, are used worldwide for a variety of therapeutic applications. Benzothiazole and their heterocyclic derivatives represent an important class of compounds possessing a wide spectrum of biological activities. The myriad spectrum of medicinal properties associated with benzothiazole related drugs has encouraged the medicinal chemists to synthesize a large number of novel therapeutic agents. Several analogues containing benzothiazole ring system exhibit significant antitumour, antimicrobial, antidiabetic, anti-inflammatory, anticonvulsant, antiviral, antioxidant, antitubercular, antimalarial, antiasthmatic, anthelmintic, photosensitizing, diuretic, analgesic and other activities. This article is an attempt to present the research work reported in recent scientific literature on different pharmacological activities of benzothiazole compounds.

Crystal packing modifies ligand binding affinity: the case of aldose reductase

The relationship between the structures of protein-ligand complexes existing in the crystal and in solution, essential in the case of fragment-based screening by X-ray crystallography (FBS-X), has been often an object of controversy. To address this question, simultaneous co-crystallization and soaking of two inhibitors with different ratios, Fidarestat (FID; K(d) = 6.5 nM) and IDD594 (594; K(d) = 61 nM), which bind to h-aldose reductase (AR), have been performed. The subatomic resolution of the crystal structures allows the differentiation of both inhibitors, even when the structures are almost superposed. We have determined the occupation ratio in solution by mass spectrometry (MS) Occ(FID)/Occ(594) = 2.7 and by X-ray crystallography Occ(FID)/Occ(594) = 0.6. The occupancies in the crystal and in solution differ 4.6 times, implying that ligand binding potency is influenced by crystal contacts. A structural analysis shows that the Loop A (residues 122-130), which is exposed to the solvent, is flexible in solution, and is involved in packing contacts within the crystal. Furthermore, inhibitor 594 contacts the base of Loop A, stabilizing it, while inhibitor FID does not. This is shown by the difference in B-factors of the Loop A between the AR-594 and AR-FID complexes. A stable loop diminishes the entropic energy barrier to binding, favoring 594 versus FID. Therefore, the effect of the crystal environment should be taken into consideration in the X-ray diffraction analysis of ligand binding to proteins. This conclusion highlights the need for additional methodologies in the case of FBS-X to validate this powerful screening technique, which is widely used.

Pocket-space maps to identify novel binding-site conformations in proteins

The identification of novel binding-site conformations can greatly assist the progress of structure-based ligand design projects. Diverse pocket shapes drive medicinal chemistry to explore a broader chemical space and thus present additional opportunities to overcome key drug discovery issues such as potency, selectivity, toxicity, and pharmacokinetics. We report a new automated approach to diverse pocket selection, PocketAnalyzer(PCA), which applies principal component analysis and clustering to the output of a grid-based pocket detection algorithm. Since the approach works directly with pocket shape descriptors, it is free from some of the problems hampering methods that are based on proxy shape descriptors, e.g. a set of atomic positional coordinates. The approach is technically straightforward and allows simultaneous analysis of mutants, isoforms, and protein structures derived from multiple sources with different residue numbering schemes. The PocketAnalyzer(PCA) approach is illustrated by the compilation of diverse sets of pocket shapes for aldose reductase and viral neuraminidase. In both cases this allows identification of novel computationally derived binding-site conformations that are yet to be observed crystallographically. Indeed, known inhibitors capable of exploiting these novel binding-site conformations are subsequently identified, thereby demonstrating the utility of PocketAnalyzer(PCA) for rationalizing and improving the understanding of the molecular basis of protein-ligand interaction and bioactivity. A Python program implementing the PocketAnalyzer(PCA) approach is available for download under an open-source license ( http://sourceforge.net/projects/papca/ or http://cpclab.uni-duesseldorf.de/downloads ).

1,2-Benzothiazine 1,1-dioxide carboxylate derivatives as novel potent inhibitors of aldose reductase

Due to the importance of aldose reductase (ALR2) as a potential drug target in the treatment of diabetic complications, there are increasing interests in design and synthesis of ALR2 inhibitors. Here, we prepared 1,2-benzothiazine 1,1-dioxide acetic acid derivatives and investigated their inhibition activity. Most of these derivatives were found to be active with IC(50) values ranging from 0.11 μM to 10.42 μM, and compound 8d, 2-[2-(4-bromo-2-fluorobenzyl)-1,1-dioxido-2H-1,2-benzothiazin-4(3H)-ylidene]acetic acid, showed the most potent inhibition activity. Further, SAR and docking studies suggest that in comparison with the α,β-unsaturated derivatives, the saturated carboxylic acid derivatives had a greater binding affinity with the enzyme and thus an enhanced inhibition activity. Therefore, development of more powerful ARIs based on benzothiazine 1,1-dioxide by stereo-controlled synthesis could be expected.

Design and synthesis of potent and selective aldose reductase inhibitors based on pyridylthiadiazine scaffold

A series of pyrido[2,3-e]-[1,2,4]-thiadiazine 1,1-dioxide acetic acid derivatives were synthesized and tested for their inhibitory activity against aldose reductase (ALR2). These derivatives were found to be potent aldose reductase inhibitors with IC50 values ranging from 0.038 μM to 11.29 μM. Most but not all of them showed a strong ALR2 inhibition activity and significant selectivity, which were further supported by docking studies. Of these inhibitors, compound 7d exhibited highest inhibition activity. Structure-activity relationship studies indicate the requirement of N2-benzyl group with electron-withdrawing substituents and N4-acetic acid group in the pyridothiadiazine scaffold.

Palladium-catalyzed intramolecular trapping of the Blaise reaction intermediate for tandem one-pot synthesis of indole derivatives

Palladium-catalyzed intramolecular N-arylative and N-alkylative/N-arylative trappings of the Blaise reaction intermediates could be a new route to construct the indole moiety in a tandem one-pot manner from nitriles.

Diabetic cataract-pathogenesis, epidemiology and treatment

Cataract in diabetic patients is a major cause of blindness in developed and developing countries. The pathogenesis of diabetic cataract development is still not fully understood. Recent basic research studies have emphasized the role of the polyol pathway in the initiation of the disease process. Population-based studies have greatly increased our knowledge concerning the association between diabetes and cataract formation and have defined risk factors for the development of cataract. Diabetic patients also have a higher risk of complications after phacoemulsification cataract surgery compared to nondiabetics. Aldose-reductase inhibitors and antioxidants have been proven beneficial in the prevention or treatment of this sightthreatening condition in in vitro and in vivo experimental studies. This paper provides an overview of the pathogenesis of diabetic cataract, clinical studies investigating the association between diabetes and cataract development, and current treatment of cataract in diabetics.

Path-integral method for predicting relative binding affinities of protein-ligand complexes

We present a novel approach for computing biomolecular interaction binding affinities based on a simple path integral solution of the Fokker-Planck equation. Computing the free energy of protein-ligand interactions can expedite structure-based drug design. Traditionally, the problem is seen through the lens of statistical thermodynamics. The computations can become, however, prohibitively long for the change in the free energy upon binding to be determined accurately. In this work, we present a different approach based on a stochastic kinetic formalism. Inspired by Feynman's path integral formulation, we extend the theory to classical interacting systems. The ligand is modeled as a Brownian particle subjected to the effective nonbonding interaction potential of the receptor. This allows the calculation of the relative binding affinities of interacting biomolecules in water to be computed as a function of the ligand's diffusivity and the curvature of the potential surface in the vicinity of the binding minimum. The calculation is thus exceedingly rapid. In test cases, the correlation coefficient between actual and computed free energies is >0.93 for accurate data sets.