Design, synthesis, and biological evaluation of aminopyrazine derivatives as inhibitors of mitogen-activated protein kinase-activated protein kinase 2 (MK-2)

Exploring the detailed spectroscopic characteristics, chemical and biological activity of two cyanopyrazine-2-carboxamide derivatives using experimental and theoretical tools

This article represents the spectroscopic and computational studies of two new pyrazine compounds. In order to establish the structure and functional nature of the compounds, we have employed Fourier transformed infrared (FT-IR) and Raman spectra, nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectra, and ultraviolet (UV) absorptions and have compared them with the simulated computational spectra and found that they are in the agreeable range. Simulated hyperpolarisability values are used to obtain the nonlinear optic (NLO) activity of the compound, to be used in organic electronic materials. The charge transfer and related properties was investigated by the simulation of electronic spectrum with time dependent density functional theory (TD-DFT). Natural transition orbitals (NTO) provides information about which region of the molecules are more involved in the electronic transitions and the charge transfer properties for the lowest energy excitation have been analyzed on the basis of electron density variation. Molecular dynamics simulations provide information about the behavior of the molecule in solutions. Frontier orbital analysis and study of various reactivity descriptors like ALIE and Fukui provided deep knowledge on the reactivity side. Molecular docking has been also performed to investigate the interaction between title molecules and exhibits inhibitory activity against Pseudomonas aeruginosa Enoyl-Acyl carrier protein reductase (Fabl).

Facile synthesis of N-1,2,4-oxadiazole substituted sulfoximines from N-cyano sulfoximines

A divergent approach has been successfully developed for the synthesis of N-1,2,4-oxadiazole substituted sulfoximines starting from N-cyano sulfoximines. This method has a wide degree of substrate scope that includes aryl, heteroaryl, alkyl, fluoroalkyl and saturated heterocyclic compounds. Excellent functional group tolerability was also observed. Extension of this methodology to nucleosides, amino acids and dipeptides was found to be successful. A gram scale reaction was also established. The major part of this method is metal free and the utility of environmentally friendly solvents such as 2-methyl THF and ionic liquids is an added advantage.

Design, Synthesis, and In Vitro Activity of Pyrazine Compounds

Despite the fact that there are several anticancer drugs available, cancer has evolved using different pathways inside the cell. The protein tyrosine phosphatases pathway is responsible for monitoring cell proliferation, diversity, migration, and metabolism. More specifically, the SHP2 protein, which is a member of the PTPs family, is closely related to cancer. In our efforts, with the aid of a structure-based drug design, we optimized the known inhibitor SHP099 by introducing 1-(methylsulfonyl)-4-prolylpiperazine as a linker. We designed and synthesized three pyrazine-based small molecules. We started with prolines as cyclic amines, confirming that our structures had the same interactions with those already existing in the literature, and, here, we report one new hydrogen bond. These studies concluded in the discovery of methyl (6-amino-5-(2,3-dichlorophenyl)pyrazin-2-yl)prolylprolinate hydrochloride as one of the final compounds which is an active and acceptable cytotoxic agent.

Targeting Mitogen-Activated Protein Kinase-Activated Protein Kinase 2 (MAPKAPK2, MK2): Medicinal Chemistry Efforts To Lead Small Molecule Inhibitors to Clinical Trials

The p38/MAPK-activated kinase 2 (MK2) pathway is involved in a series of pathological conditions (inflammation diseases and metastasis) and in the resistance mechanism to antitumor agents. None of the p38 inhibitors entered advanced clinical trials because of their unwanted systemic side effects. For this reason, MK2 was identified as an alternative target to block the pathway but avoiding the side effects of p38 inhibition. However, ATP-competitive MK2 inhibitors suffered from low solubility, poor cell permeability, and scarce kinase selectivity. Fortunately, non-ATP-competitive inhibitors of MK2 have been already discovered that allowed circumventing the selectivity issue. These compounds showed the additional advantage to be effective at lower concentrations in comparison to the ATP-competitive inhibitors. Therefore, although the significant difficulties encountered during the development of these inhibitors, MK2 is still considered as an attractive target to treat inflammation and related diseases to prevent tumor metastasis and to increase tumor sensitivity to chemotherapeutics.