Bioactive fluorenes. Part IV: Design, synthesis, and a combined in vitro, in silico anticancer and antibacterial evaluation of new fluorene-heterocyclic sulfonamide conjugates

The anticancer therapeutic potential of pyrimidine-sulfonamide hybrids

Cancer as a devastating malignancy, seriously threatens human life and health, but most chemotherapeutics have long been criticized for unsatisfactory therapeutic efficacy due to drug resistance and severe off-target toxicity. Pyrimidines, including fused pyrimidines, are privileged scaffolds for various biological cancer targets and are the most important class of metalloenzyme carbonic anhydrase inhibitors. Pyrimidine-sulfonamide hybrids can act on different targets in cancer cells simultaneously and possess potent activity against various cancers, revealing that hybridization of pyrimidine with sulfonamide is a promising approach to generate novel effective anticancer candidates. This review aims to summarize the recent progress of pyrimidine-sulfonamide hybrids with anticancer potential, covering papers published from 2020 to present, to facilitate further rational design of more effective candidates.

Discovery and optimization of 2,3-diaryl-1,3-thiazolidin-4-one-based derivatives as potent and selective cytotoxic agents with anti-inflammatory activity

Several studies have indicated the potential therapeutic outcomes of combining selective COX-2 inhibitors with tubulin-targeting anticancer agents. In the current study, a novel series of thiazolidin-4-one-based derivatives (7a-q) was designed by merging the pharmacophoric features of some COXs inhibitors and tubulin polymerization inhibitors. Compounds 7a-q were synthesized and evaluated for their cytotoxic activity against MCF7, HT29, and A2780 cancer cell lines (IC50 = 0.02-17.02 μM). The cytotoxicity of 7a-q was also assessed against normal MRC5 cells (IC50 = 0.47-13.46 μM). Compounds 7c, 7i, and 7j, the most active in the MTT assay, significantly reduced the number of HT29 colonies compared to the control. Compounds 7c, 7i, and 7j also induced significant decreases in the tumor volumes and masses in Ehrlich solid carcinoma-bearing mice compared to the control. The three compounds also exhibited significant anti-HT29 migration activity in the wound-healing assay. They have also induced cell cycle arrest in HT29 cells at the S and G2/M phases. In addition, they induced significant increases in both early and late apoptotic events in HT29 cells compared to the control, where 7j showed the highest effect. On the other hand, compound 7j (1 μM) displayed weak inhibitory activity against tubulin polymerization compared to colchicine (3 μM). On the other hand, compounds 7a-q inhibited the activity of COX-2 (IC50 = 0.42-29.11 μM) compared to celecoxib (IC50 = 0.86 μM). In addition, 7c, 7i, and 7j showed moderate inhibition of inflammation in rats compared to indomethacin, with better GIT safety profiles. Molecular docking analysis revealed that 7c, 7i, and 7j have higher binding free energies towards COX-2 than COX-1. These above results suggested that 7j could serve as a potential anticancer drug candidate.

A new class of anticancer activity with computational studies for a novel bioactive aminophosphonates based on pyrazole moiety

The present study involves synthesis a new series of α-aminophosphonates 2a-f and 4a-d derivatives in good yield with a simple workup via Kabachnik-Fields reaction in the presence of lithium perchlorate as Lewis acid catalyst. All the newly synthesized compounds were confirmed using various physical, spectroscopic, and analytical data. The in vitro anticancer activities of each compound were evaluated against colorectal carcinoma Colon cancer (HCT-116) and Epdermoid carcinoma (HEP2) and also Human lung fibroblast normal cell line (WI38) compared with Doxorubicin. The results showed that Compounds 2a, 4b and 4d exhibited more potent inhibitory activity for Epdermoid Carcinoma (HEP2) compared with doxorubicin. For colon carcinoma cells (HCT-116) Compounds 2a, 2d and 4b gave the strongest activity among all compounds compared with doxorubicin. Moreover, all designed structures were docked into the active site of VEGFR2 and FGFR1 proteins. The result reveals that compound 2b and have the strongest inhibitory activity of the VEGFR2 and FGFR1 proteins indicating that these substances might conceivably operate as VEGFR2 and FGFR1 inhibitors and hence might take role in anticancer activities with various binding interactions. The 3D-QSAR models produced strong statistical results since they were defined by PLS factors 4 and confirmed by parameters as R2, R2 CV, Stability, F-value, P-value, RMSE, Q2, and Pearson-r.

Synthesis of tricyclic and tetracyclic benzo[6,7]cycloheptane derivatives linked morpholine moiety as CDK2 inhibitors

With the aim of developing cyclin-dependent kinase 2 (CDK2) inhibitors with strong antibreast cancer efficacy, new tricyclic and tetracyclic benzo[6,7]cycloheptane derivatives were synthesized. The newly synthesized tri- and tetracyclic derivatives were achieved from the reaction of 4-(4-morpholin-4-yl-phenyl)-1,3,4,5,6,7-hexahydro-benzo[6,7]cyclohepta[1,2-d]pyrimidine-2-thione (5) with α-haloketone derivatives as hydrazonyl chlorides, phenacyl bromide derivatives, chloroacetone, and ethyl substituted acetate derivatives. The MCF-7 and MDA-MB-231 breast cancer cell lines were utilized to examine the anticancer properties. Compounds 5 and 8 were shown to be the most effective, with half-maximal inhibitory concentration (IC50 ) values between 5.73 and 9.11 µM, which are on the level with doxorubicin. Mechanistic studies showed that 5 and 8 caused tumor cell death by inducing apoptosis and they also produced cancer arrest in the S phase of the cell cycle. In addition, compounds 5 and 8 showed strong anti-CDK2 action (IC50  = 0.112 and 0.18 µM, respectively) comparable to roscovitine (IC50  = 0.127 µM). Moreover, the docking result demonstrated that derivatives 5 and 8 fit into the CDK2 active site in the proper orientation.

Antibacterial Properties and Computational Insights of Potent Novel Linezolid-Based Oxazolidinones

The mounting evidence of bacterial resistance against commonly prescribed antibiotics warrants the development of new antibacterial drugs on an urgent basis. Linezolid, an oxazolidinone antibiotic, is a lead molecule in designing new oxazolidinones as antibacterial agents. In this study, we report the antibacterial potential of the novel oxazolidinone-sulphonamide/amide conjugates that were recently reported by our research group. The antibacterial assays showed that, from the series, oxazolidinones 2 and 3a exhibited excellent potency (MIC of 1.17 μg/mL) against B. subtilis and P. aeruginosa strains, along with good antibiofilm activity. Docking studies revealed higher binding affinities of oxazolidinones 2 and 3a compared to linezolid, which were further validated by molecular dynamics simulations. In addition to this, other computational studies, one-descriptor (log P) analysis, ADME-T and drug likeness studies demonstrated the potential of these novel linezolid-based oxazolidinones to be taken forward for further studies.

A computational chemistry-driven hypothesis on the mode of action of Hipposudoric Acid and related analogs

Aim: To elucidate the mode of action of the hipposudoric acid derivatives and identify hit compounds for synthesis. Materials & methods: Structural fragments of known bioactive fluorenes were introduced onto the hipposudoric acid scaffold to yield novel derivatives. The binding motifs of the novel compounds were compared to the pharmacophore of DHFR co-crystallized with Methotrexate (MTX). Results: Several of the novel compounds showed binding affinities that exceeded the affinity of the docked endogenous ligand (dihydrofolic acid). Conclusion: This study indicates that compounds 3r₁₂, 3r₉, 1s₉ and 3r₁₀ are promising candidates for synthesis and pharmacological evaluation.

Inhibitory potential of nitrogen, oxygen and sulfur containing heterocyclic scaffolds against acetylcholinesterase and butyrylcholinesterase

Heterocycles are the key structures in organic chemistry owing to their immense applications in the biological, chemical, and pharmaceutical fields. Heterocyclic compounds perform various noteworthy functions in nature, medication, innovation etc. Most frequently, pure nitrogen heterocycles or various positional combinations of nitrogen, oxygen, and sulfur atoms in five or six-membered rings can be found. Inhibition of acetylcholinesterase (AChE) and butyrylcholinesterase (BChE) enzymes is a popular strategy for the management of numerous mental diseases. In this context, cholinesterase inhibitors are utilized to relieve the symptoms of neurological illnesses like dementia and Alzheimer's disease (AD). The present review focuses on various heterocyclic scaffolds and their role in designing and developing new potential AChE and BChE inhibitors to treat AD. Moreover, a detailed structure-activity relationship (SAR) has been established for the future discovery of novel drugs for the treatment of AD. Most of the heterocyclic motifs have been used in the design of new potent cholinesterase inhibitors. In this regard, this review is an endeavor to summarize the biological and chemical studies over the past decade (2010-2022) describing the pursuit of new N, O and S containing heterocycles which can offer a rich supply of promising AChE and BChE inhibitory activities.

New Imidazole-Based N-Phenylbenzamide Derivatives as Potential Anticancer Agents: Key Computational Insights

An efficient atom-economical synthetic protocol to access new imidazole-based N-phenylbenzamide derivatives is described. A one-pot three-component reaction was utilized to provide a series of N-phenylbenzamide derivatives in a short reaction time (2–4 h) with an 80–85% yield. The cytotoxic evaluation revealed that derivatives 4e and 4f exhibited good activity, with IC₅₀ values between 7.5 and 11.1 μM against the tested cancer cell lines. Computational studies revealed interesting insights: the docking of the active derivatives (4e and 4f) showed a higher affinity toward the target receptor protein than the control. Molecular dynamic simulations revealed that the active derivatives form stable complexes with the ABL1 kinase protein. Moreover, the ADME and drug-likeness of the derivatives reinforced the potential of the derivatives to be taken up for further development as anticancer agents.