Synthesis, antitumor activity and QSAR studies of some 4-aminomethylidene derivatives of edaravone

Synthesis of 4,4'-(arylmethylene)bis(3-methyl-1-phenyl-1H-pyrazol-5-ols) and evaluation of their antioxidant and anticancer activities

Background

Pyrazoles have attracted particular attention due to the diverse biological activities associated with this heterocyclic system, and some have been shown to be cytotoxic to several human cell lines. Several drugs currently on the market have this heterocycle as the key structural motif, and some have been approved for the treatment of different types of cancer.

Results

4,4ʹ-(Arylmethylene)bis(1H-pyrazol-5-ols) derivatives 3a–q were synthetized by a three components reaction of 3-methyl-1-phenyl-5-pyrazolone (1) with various benzaldehydes 2 catalyzed by sodium acetate at room temperature. The structures of all synthesized compounds were characterized by physicochemical properties and spectral means (IR and NMR) and were evaluated for their radical scavenging activity by DPPH assay and tested in vitro on colorectal RKO carcinoma cells in order to determine their cytotoxic properties. All 4,4ʹ-(arylmethylene)bis(1H-pyrazol-5-ols) derivatives 3a–q were synthetized in high to excellent yield, and pure products were isolated by simple filtration. All compounds have good radical scavenging activity, and half of them are more active than ascorbic acid used as standard.

Conclusion

Several derivatives proved to be cytotoxic in the RKO cell line. In particular, compound 3i proved to be a very potent scavenger with an IC₅₀ of 6.2 ± 0.6 µM and exhibited an IC₅₀ of 9.9 ± 1.1 μM against RKO cell. Autophagy proteins were activated as a survival mechanism, whereas the predominant pathway of death was p53-mediated apoptosis.

Supplementary Information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s13065-021-00765-y.

Drug Repurposing: Promises of Edaravone Target Drug in Traumatic Brain Injury

Edaravone is a potent free-radical scavenger that has been in the market for more than 30 years. It was originally developed in Japan to treat strokes and has been used there since 2001. Aside from its anti-oxidative effects, edaravone demonstrated beneficial effects on proinflammatory responses, nitric oxide production, and apoptotic cell death. Interestingly, edaravone has shown neuroprotective effects in several animal models of diseases other than stroke. In particular, edaravone administration was found to be effective in halting amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) progression during the early stages. Accordingly, after its success in Phase III clinical studies, edaravone has been approved by the FDA as a treatment for ALS patients. Considering its promises in neurological disorders and its safety in patients, edaravone is a drug of interest that can be repurposed for traumatic brain injury (TBI) treatment. Drug repurposing is a novel approach in drug development that identifies drugs for purposes other than their original indication. This review presents the biochemical properties of edaravone along with its effects on several neurological disorders in the hope that it can be adopted for treating TBI patients.

Insecticidal potency of Aspergillus terreus against larvae and pupae of three mosquito species Anopheles stephensi, Culex quinquefasciatus, and Aedes aegypti

Microbial control agents offer alternatives to chemical pest control, as they can be more selective than chemical insecticides. The present study evaluates the mosquito larvicidal and pupicidal potential of fungus mycelia using ethyl acetate and methanol solvent extracts produced by Aspergillus terreus against Anopheles stephensi, Culex quinquefasciatus, and Aedes aegypti. The A. terreus mycelia were extracted after 15 days from Sabouraud dextrose broth medium. The ethyl acetate extracts showed lethal concentration that kills 50% of the exposed larvae (LC50) and lethal concentration that kills 90% of the exposed larvae (LC90) values of the first, second, third, and fourth instar larvae of An. stephensi (LC50 = 97.410, 102.551, 29.802, and 8.907; LC90 = 767.957, 552.546, 535.474, and 195.677 μg/ml), Cx. quinquefasciatus (LC50 = 89.584, 74.689, 68.265, and 67.40; LC90 = 449.091, 337.355, 518.793, and 237.347 μg/ml), and Ae. aegypti (LC50 = 83.541, 84.418, 80.407, and 95.926; LC90 = 515.464, 443.167, 387.910, and 473.998 μg/ml). Pupicidal activity of mycelium extracts was tested against An. stephensi (LC50 = 25.228, LC90 = 140.487), Cx. quinquefasciatus (LC50 = 54.525, LC90 = 145.366), and Ae. aegypti (LC50 = 10.536, LC90 = 63.762 μg/ml). At higher concentration (500 μg/ml), mortality starts within the first 6 h of exposure. One hundred percent mortality occurs at 24-h exposure. The overall result observed that effective activity against selected mosquito larvae and pupae after 24 h was a dose and time-dependent activity. These ensure that the resultant mosquito population reduction is substantial even where the larvicidal and pupicidal potential is minimal. The FTIR spectra of ethyl acetate extract reflect prominent peaks (3448.32, 3000.36, 2914.59, 2118.73, 1668.21, 1436.87, 1409.02, 954.33, 901.13, and 704.67 cm(-1)). The spectra showed a sharp absorption band at 1314.66 cm(-1) assigned to wagging vibration of the C-H group. The band at 1023.59 cm(-1) developed for C-O and C=N, respectively, and was commonly found in carboxylic acid and amine groups. GC-MS analysis of ethyl acetate extracts showed the presence of six compounds, of which the major compounds were identified as n-hexadecanoic acid (15.31%) and methyl 12,15-octadecadienoate (31.989%), based on their peak molecular weight. The HPLC analysis result highlights that the A. terreus ethyl acetate extract was compared with pure n-hexadecanoic acid which resulted in similar retention time of 19.52 and 19.38, respectively. Thus, the active compound produced by this species would be more useful against vectors responsible for diseases of public health importance. This is the first report on mosquito larvicidal and pupicidal activity of ethyl acetate extract produced by A. terreus species.

Chamomile and marigold tea: chemical characterization and evaluation of anticancer activity

With the aim to evaluate the selectivity in the antitumor action, the cytotoxic activity of chamomile and marigold tea was tested against various malignant cell lines and against healthy immunocompetent peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC). Chemical profiles of chamomile and marigold infusions and decoctions were analyzed by liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry; their total phenolic content and radical scavenging activity were determined, too. Results from present research demonstrate that chamomile and marigold tea exert selective dose-dependent cytotoxic action against target cancer cells. It is noteworthy that cytotoxicity of tea prepared from Calendula officinalis is remarkably higher in comparison to that from Matricaria recutita tea. The cytotoxic effect of chamomile tea is very weak to healthy PBMC, while the effect of marigold tea on PBMC is more pronounced. Marigold tea exerts highly selective antitumor effect especially to melanoma Fem-x cells in comparison to the action to normal healthy PBMC. Chemical analyses show that dominant phenolic compounds in examined infusions and decoctions are flavonoid glycosides and hydroxycinnamic acid derivatives. There are no considerable differences in total phenolic content and antioxidant activity between examined infusions. Antitumor potential of chamomile and marigold tea should be further investigated.

High-Dimensional descriptor selection and computational QSAR modeling for antitumor activity of ARC-111 analogues Based on Support Vector Regression (SVR)

To design ARC-111 analogues with improved efficiency, we constructed the QSAR of 22 ARC-111 analogues with RPMI8402 tumor cells. First, the optimized support vector regression (SVR) model based on the literature descriptors and the worst descriptor elimination multi-roundly (WDEM) method had similar generalization as the artificial neural network (ANN) model for the test set. Secondly, seven and 11 more effective descriptors out of 2,923 features were selected by the high-dimensional descriptor selection nonlinearly (HDSN) and WDEM method, and the SVR models (SVR3 and SVR4) with these selected descriptors resulted in better evaluation measures and a more precise predictive power for the test set. The interpretability system of better SVR models was further established. Our analysis offers some useful parameters for designing ARC-111 analogues with enhanced antitumor activity.

Synthesis, characterization and antitumor activity of polymeric copper(II) complexes with thiosemicarbazones of 3-methyl-5-oxo-1-phenyl-3-pyrazolin-4-carboxaldehyde and 5-oxo-3-phenyl-3-pyrazolin-4-carboxaldehyde

New polymeric copper(II) complexes with two tridentate ONS thiosemicarbazone ligands containing substituted pyrazolone moiety were synthesized and characterized by means of spectroscopic, electrochemical and crystallographic techniques. While both ligands exist as different tautomers in the solid state and DMSO-d(6) solution, Cu(II) ion coordinates the ligands from the same tautomeric form with square-pyramidal geometry around each Cu atom. In the crystal structures, the copper(II) complex cation forms polymeric chains {[Cu(L)Cl](+)}(n) with a bridging chlorine atom. One of the complexes was found to have a significantly higher cytotoxic potential in comparison with cisplatin in inhibition of several cell lines (HL60, REH, C6, L929 and B16). The results obtained on the basis of flow cytometry indicated that apoptosis could be possible mechanism of cell death.