Quantum chemical study of silanediols as metal binding groups for metalloprotease inhibitors

The role of silicon in drug discovery: a review

This review aims to highlight the role of silicon in drug discovery. Silicon and carbon are often regarded as being similar with silicon located directly beneath carbon in the same group in the periodic table. That being noted, in many instances a clear dichotomy also exists between silicon and carbon, and these differences often lead to vastly different physiochemical and biological properties. As a result, the utility of silicon in drug discovery has attracted significant attention and has grown rapidly over the past decade. This review showcases some recent advances in synthetic organosilicon chemistry and examples of the ways in which silicon has been employed in the drug-discovery field.

Heterocycles-Containing HDAC Inhibitors Active in Cancer: An Overview of the Last Fifteen Years

Cancer is one of the primary causes of mortality worldwide. Despite nowadays are numerous therapeutic treatments to fight tumor progression, it is still challenging to completely overcome it. It is known that Histone Deacetylases (HDACs), epigenetic enzymes that remove acetyl groups from lysines on histone's tails, are overexpressed in various types of cancer, and their inhibition represents a valid therapeutic strategy. To date, some HDAC inhibitors have achieved FDA approval. Nevertheless, several other potential drug candidates have been developed. This review aims primarily to be comprehensive of the studies done so far regarding HDAC inhibitors bearing heterocyclic rings since their therapeutic potential is well known and has gained increasing interest in recent years. Hence, inserting heterocyclic moieties in the HDAC-inhibiting scaffold can be a valuable strategy to provide potent and/or selective compounds. Here, in addition to summarizing the properties of novel heterocyclic HDAC inhibiting compounds, we also provide ideas for developing new, more potent, and selective compounds for treating cancer.

The Zinc-Binding Group Effect: Lessons from Non-Hydroxamic Acid Vorinostat Analogs

Histone deacetylases (HDACs) are enzymes pursued as drug targets in various cancers and several non-oncological conditions, such as inflammation and neurodegenerative disorders. In the past decade, HDAC inhibitors (HDACi) have emerged as relevant pharmaceuticals, with many efforts devoted to the development of new representatives. However, the growing safety concerns regarding the established hydroxamic acid-based HDAC inhibitors tend to drive current research more toward the design of inhibitors bearing alternative zinc-binding groups (ZBGs). This Perspective presents an overview of all non-hydroxamic acid ZBGs that have been incorporated into the clinically approved prototypical HDACi, suberoylanilide hydroxamic acid (vorinostat). This provides the unique opportunity to compare the inhibition potential and biological effects of different ZBGs in a direct way, as the compounds selected for this Perspective differ only in their ZBG. To that end, different strategies used to select a ZBG, its properties, activity, and liabilities are discussed.

Study of the chelating properties of Ge(OH)2 functionality as metal binding group for Zn2+ cation in simplified protease-like environments: a DFT analysis

The development of protease's inhibitors is an active field of research in the pharmaceutical industry. As concerns the design of new inhibitors, the theoretical study of the binding patterns and energies of known metal binding groups (MBGs) toward Zn(2+) using quantum-chemical calculations may offer a better understanding of their interaction models and may be useful for the improvement and design of novel ZBGs. Here the properties of gem-Ge(OH)(2)-based compounds as ZBG were assessed theoretically using DFT calculations. [Zn(Imdz)(2) R - OH(2)](2+) complexes (Imdz =imidazole rings; R = imidazole ring, acetic acid molecule or acetate anion) were used to partially reproduce the coordination sphere in metalloproteases (ACE, amgiotensin converting enzyme, and TLN, thermolysine) being inhibited by related compounds (i.e., silanediols). The MBG- Zn(2+) interaction was analyzed through the energy of the reaction: [Zn(Imdz)(2) R - OH(2)](2+) + L → [Zn(Imdz)(2) R - L](2+) + H(2)O using DFT (M06L/cc-pVDZ) in gas-phase and in solution (IEF-PCM). Although the functional used (M06L) has proven its efficiency to study systems containing transition metal governed by non-covalent interactions, dispersion effects were implemented by the correction of the computed energies using the DFT-D3 program. Accounting for dispersion effects produced a systematic increase of c.a. 13 kJ mol(-1) on the energies, whereas the effect of solvent goes in the opposite direction (i.e., BE under the IEF-PCM model are on average 125 kJ mol(-1) lower). The Ge(OH)(2) - Zn(2+) interaction seems to be similar (or even stronger) than the Si(OH)(2) -Zn(2+). Their better performance as ZBG is explained by the combined NBO-AIM analysis. The results of this work may encourage the preparation, isolation, and experimental assay of the chelating properties of these compounds, which may propose a new family of protease's inhibitors.