Analogues of methotrexate in rheumatoid arthritis. 1. Effects of 10-deazaaminopterin analogues on type II collagen-induced arthritis in mice

Synthesis, anticancer evaluation and molecular docking studies of methotrexate's novel Schiff base derivatives against malignant glioma cell lines

Recent years have witnessed advancement in cancer research that has led to the development of improved cytotoxic therapies with reduced side effects. Methotrexate (MTX) is a commonly used anticancer drug having robust activity, but with serious side effects. Several derivatives of MTX have been reported by modification at different sites to reduce its side effects and enhance efficacy. The current work describes the development of active MTX Schiff base derivatives by treating MTX with several aldehydes viz 2-chlorobenzaldehyde, 3-nitrobenzaldehyde, 5-chloro-2-hydroxybenz-aldehyde, 2-hydroxy-5-nitrobenzaldehyde, 2-thiocarboxyaldehyde, trans-2-pentenal and glutaraldehyde. Newly synthesized derivatives were evaluated for their anticancer potential against human malignant glioma U87 (MG-U87) cell lines at different concentrations of 200 μM, 100 μM, 50 μM, 25 μM, 12.5 μm, 6.25 μm and 0 μM. MTX derivatives with 2-Chlorobenzaldehyde (IC₅₀ ∼100 μM), 2-Thiocarboxyaldehyde (IC₅₀ <200 μM) and 2- Pentenal (IC₅₀ ∼250 μM) showed much better activity at 100 µM compared to 400 µM concentration of MTX. Molecular docking studies were performed that showed a good correlation with the results obtained from in vitro experiments. The excellent agreement between molecular modeling and growth inhibition assay shows that the binding mode hypothesis is justly close to the experimentally biological values, therefore, may prove helpful for further lead optimization and clinical trials.Communicated by Ramaswamy H. Sarma.

Nickel-Catalyzed Carbonylative Synthesis of Functionalized Alkyl Iodides

Functionalized alkyl iodides are important compounds in organic chemistry and biology. In this communication, we developed an interesting nickel-catalyzed carbonylative synthesis of functionalized alkyl iodides from aryl iodides and ethers. With Mo(CO)₆ as the solid CO source, both cyclic and acyclic ethers were activated, which is also a challenging topic in organic synthesis. Functionalized alkyl iodides were prepared in moderate to excellent yields with outstanding functional group tolerance. Besides the high value of the obtained products, all the atoms from the starting materials were incorporated in the final products and the reaction had high atom efficiency as well.

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Nickel-catalyzed carbonylative synthesis of functionalized alkyl iodides

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With Mo(CO)₆ as the solid CO source, carbonylative ether activation

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Good yields of functionalized alkyl iodides

Anti-arthritic agents: progress and potential

Osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis are the two most common types of arthritis. Cartilage breakdown is a key feature of both diseases which contributes to the pain and joint deformity experienced by patients. Therefore, anti-arthritis drugs are of great importance. The aim of this review is to present recent progress in studies of various agents against osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis. The structures and activities of anti-arthritic agents, which used in medical practice or are in development, are presented and discussed. The effects and mechanisms of action of opioids, glucocorticoids, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drugs, natural products derived from plants, nutraceuticals, and a number of new and perspective agents are considered. Various perspective targets for the treatment of osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis are also discussed. Trials of good quality are needed to draw solid conclusions regarding efficacy of many of the studied agents. Unfortunately, to date, there is no pharmacologic agent proven to prevent the progression of both diseases, and there is an urgent need for further development of better anti-arthritic agents.

The diversity-oriented synthesis of pteridines - achievements and potential for development

The importance of pteridines in the key cofactors, tetrahydrofolate and tetrahydrobiopterin, has encouraged the development of the chemistry and chemical biology of pteridines. In order to investigate the latter, versatile synthetic methods are required to prepare designed relatives of the natural cofactors for use as potential drugs or biological probes. Recently, diversity-oriented synthesis has become a particularly powerful and versatile approach to the synthesis of pteridines and related heterocyclic compounds. This article describes and discusses available methods using radical, electrophilic, nucleophilic, and organometal mediated substitution reactions.

Computation of affinity and selectivity: binding of 2,4-diaminopteridine and 2,4-diaminoquinazoline inhibitors to dihydrofolate reductases

Binding energy calculations for complexes of mutant and wild-type human dihydrofolate reductases with 2,4-diaminopteridine and 2,4-diaminoquinazoline inhibitors are reported. Quantitative insight into binding energetics of these molecules is obtained from calculations based on force field energy evaluation and thermal sampling by molecular dynamics simulations. The calculated affinity of methotrexate for wild-type and mutant enzymes is reasonably well reproduced. Truncation of the methotrexate glutamate tail results in a loss of affinity by several orders of magnitude. No major difference in binding strength is predicted between the pteridines and the quinazolìnes, while the N-methyl group present in methotrexate appears to confer significantly stronger binding. The recent improvement, which is used here, of our linear interaction energy method for binding affinity prediction, as well as problems with treating charged and flexible ligands are discussed. This approach should be suitable in a drug discovery context for prediction of binding energies of new inhibitors prior to their synthesis, when some information about the binding mode is available.