Current Topics in Medicinal Chemistry - Volume 14, Issue 2, 2014

Phenanthroindolizidine alkaloids are a well-known class of compounds due to their interesting biological activities, especially anticancer ones. Represented by more than 60 substances, they are mainly isolated from plants of the Moraceae and Asclepiadaceae families. In the last 30 years, a great effort has been made aiming the synthesis of these compounds and analogues to be applied in medicinal chemistry.

Introduction: alkaloids are a group of naturally occurring chemical compounds that contain mostly basic nitrogen atoms. In particular berberine is a quaternary ammonium salt from the protoberberine group of isoquinoline alkaloids with anti-lipogenic and hypoglycemic effects. On the other hand, mate plant has reported to have high antioxidant potential, including an inhibitory ability against plasma and LDL oxidation. Areas Read More

An intensive research effort during the last 25 years has generated an impressive number of alkaloids isolated from marine ascidians, which remain unique among marine invertebrates in that they overwhelmingly produce this kind of metabolites. The present review is focused on some major groups of ascidians’ bioactive alkaloids, useful as lead structures in the search and development of new drugs or as biological pro Read More

Organocatalysis and cooperative catalysis are fast growing research areas. In these fields, cinchona alkaloids and their derivatives play a major role. The ready availability of both pseudo-enantiomeric pairs from natural sources makes them outstanding catalysts for reactions including oxidation, alkylation, cycloaddition, and carbene insertion. This short review focuses on recent achievements in the field of asymmetric c Read More

Research into novel therapeutic strategies for schizophrenia with high efficacy and low side effects has been progressed in recent years. In the present study, anti-schizophrenia activities of 2-(dimethylamino)- and 2-(methylamino)- 7H-naphtho[1,2,3-de]quinolin-7-one derivatives (D1-D10) have been evaluated in ketamine-induced experimental schizophrenia model in mice. For this aim, experimental animals was submitted Read More

In this study we evaluate the in vivo antidepressant effect of a natural phenolic compound, trans-resveratrol, and a synthetic derivative from Menispermum dauricum DC (Menispermaceae) 5-methoxy-7H-dibenzo[de,h]quinolin-7- one known as 5-methoxyoxoisoaporphine (OXO 4). The antidepressant-like effect of trans-resveratrol and OXO 4 were evaluated through a Forced Swimming Test (FST), and they were compar Read More

Alkaloid molecules can act, depending on a type of amine functionality present in alkalods, as either hydrogenacceptor or hydrogen-donor for hydrogen bonding that is critically important for the interaction (binding) between targets (enzymes, proteins and receptors) and drugs (ligands). Because of this unique property, alkaloid scaffolds are therefore present in several drugs and lead compounds. This review highlights alk Read More

Marine organisms have been found to be a very rich source of bioactive molecules. Among marine organisms, sponges have been proven to be excellent producers of secondary metabolites. More than 5,300 compounds have been isolated from sponges with around 200 new molecules reported each year. Bromopyrrole alkaloids constitute a family of exclusively marine alkaloids and represent a fascinating example of th Read More

The subject of chemosystematics has provided insight to both botanical classification and drug development. However, degrees of subjectivity in botanical classifications and limited understanding of the evolution of chemical characters and their biosynthetic pathways has often hampered such studies. In this review an approach of taking phylogenetic classification into account in evaluating colchicine and related phenethyli Read More