Medicinal Chemistry - Volume 18, Issue 10, 2022

In the last several decades, interest in pyrrole and pyrrolopyrimidine derivatives has increased owing to their biological importance, such as anti-tumor, anti-microbial, anti-inflammatory, anti-diabetic, anti-histaminic, anti-malarial, anti-Parkinson, antioxidant and anti-viral effects, specially recently against COVID-19. These tremendous biological features have motivated scientists to discover more pyrrole and fused pyrrole derivatives, owing to the great importance of the pyrrole nucleus as a pharmacophore in many drugs, and motivated us to present this article, highlighting on the different synthetic pathways of pyrrole and its fused compounds, specially pyrrolopyrimidine, as well as their medicinal value from 2017 till 2021.

Background: Pyrazole is a bioactive heterocyclic congener with numerous biological and pharmacological functionalities. Due to their multiple prospective applications, developing innovative and novel pyrazoles and analogs, revealing revolutionary methods for synthesizing this nucleus, investigating diverse potencies of that heterocycle, and exploring possible pyrazole applications are becoming increasingly relevant. Objectives: Pyrazole scaffolds have been proven successful as antimicrobial, anticancer, and antimalarial therapeutics against multiple targets like DNA gyrase, topoisomerase IV, Hsp90, and several kinase enzymes. For this variability in the biotic zone, their moiety has gained the attention of many scientists interested in researching chemical and pharmacological profiles. Results: The review covers pyrazole scaffolds with a variety of biological functions and attempts to connect the structure-activity relationship. Multiple pyrazole analogs have been produced as lead compounds, and their activities have been evaluated. Conclusion: The combination of pyrazole with other pharmacophores in a molecule might lead to novel potent therapeutic medicines, which could aid in the development of potent lead compounds.

Background: Pyrazole is a component of a diversity of bioactive heterocyclic congeners with a broad-spectrum range of biological and pharmacological uses. Designing novel pyrazole and its analogues, revealing new routes for synthesizing this nucleus, exploring various potencies of that heterocycles, and looking for possible applications of pyrazoles are all becoming more important due to their numerous potential applications. Objectives: Pyrazole scaffolds have been proven to be successful as anti-viral and anti-inflammatory therapeutics against multiple targets like HSV-1, NNRTI, H1N1, CoX-1, and CoX-2. Due to this miscellany in the biotic area, this moiety has engrossed the consideration of many scientists to study chemistry and pharmacological profile. Results: The review encompasses pyrazole having various scaffolds with multiple biological activities and attempts have also been made to correlate their structure-activity relationship. Multiple pyrazole correspondents have been synthesized as lead molecules and performed valuation for their actions. Conclusion: The incorporation of pyrazole with other pharmacophores in the molecule might lead to novel potent therapeutic agents that will further help in designing potent lead molecules.

Background: Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is a common malignant tumor with high morbidity and mortality globally. Compared with traditional diagnostic methods, microRNAs (miRNAs) are novel biomarkers with higher accuracy. Objective: We aimed to identify combinatorial biomarkers of miRNAs to construct a classification model for the diagnosis of HCC. Methods: The mature miRNA expression profile data of six cancers (liver, lung, gastric, breast, prostate, and colon) were retrieved from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) and Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) database with accession number GSE36915, GSE29250, GSE99417, GSE41970, GSE64333 and GSE35982. The messenger RNA (mRNA) expression profile data of these six cancers were obtained from TCGA. Three R software packages, student’s t-test, and a normalized foldchange method were utilized to identify HCC-specific differentially expressed miRNAs (DEMs). Using all combinations of obtained HCC-specific DEMs as input features, we constructed a classification model by support vector machine searching for the optimal combination. Furthermore, target genes prediction was conducted on the miRWalk 2.0 website to obtain differentially expressed mRNAs (DEmRNAs), and KEGG pathway enrichment was analyzed on the DAVID website. Results: The optimal combination consisted of four miRNAs (hsa-miR-130a-3p, hsa-miR-450b-5p, hsa-miR-136-5p, and hsa-miR-24-1-5p), of which the last one has not been currently reported to be relevant to HCC. The target genes of hsa-miR-24-1-5p (CDC7, ACACA, CTNNA1, and NF2) were involved in the cell cycle, AMPK signaling pathway, Hippo signaling pathway, and insulin signaling pathway, which affect the proliferation, metastasis, and apoptosis of cancer cells. Moreover, the area under the receiver operating characteristic curves of the four miRNAs were all higher than 0.85. Conclusion: These results suggest that the miRNAs combined biomarkers were reliable for the diagnosis of HCC. Hsa-miR-24-1-5p was a novel biomarker for HCC diagnosis identified in this study.

Background: The dry grinding method is a green technique for efficient organic synthesis with numerous advantages, such as mild reaction conditions, environmental acceptability, simple segregation, and refinement, as well as elevated selectivity and efficiency. Objective: The aim of the present work is to design and synthesize cyclopentylidene-hydrazino)- thiazole derivatives using dry grinding conditions to investigate their antitumor activity against two cell lines, namely, HepG-2 and A-549. Methods: In this context, we synthesized a series of thiazole incorporated cyclopentane through hydrazone- group and 2-cyclopentylidenehydrazine-1-carbimidic-2-ethoxy-N-aryl-2-oxoacetohydrazonic thioanhydride under dry grinding within minutes and excellent to good yield. Results: All spectral data confirmed the proposed structures. In addition to antitumor activity investigations against the two kinds of cancer cells, molecular docking studies were conducted using Macrophage Migration Inhibitory Factor (Pdb: 4k9g) and Lysozyme C (Pdb: 2f4a), the overexpressed proteins in the human liver cancer cell (HepG-2) and lung cancer cell lines (A-549), respectively. Conclusion: Two derivatives, 9b, and 9d, showed the highest antitumor activity against the two cell lines HepG-2 and A-549. Also, docking results revealed a high energy score ranging from -7.1590 to -5.9364 Kcal/mol with Macrophage Migration Inhibitory Factor (Pdb: 4k9g), more than that the energy score = -4.118 Kcal/mol of co-crystallized ligand. Moreover, the tested derivatives showed energy score varies from -6.0802 to -4.5503 Kcal/mol against Lysozyme C (Pdb: 2f4a).

Aims: The study aims to synthesize bioactive hybrid pharmacophores (thiazole ring and imidazo[2,1-b]thiazole system) by incorporating them into one biological assessment molecular system. Background: A literature survey revealed that various imidazo[2,1-b]thiazoles, thiazoles, and hydrazones have powerful antimycobacterial activity. Objective: This study demonstrates the effectiveness of molecular hybridization and the scope for imidazo[2,1-b]thiazole-hydrazone-thiazoles to develop as promising antimycobacterial agents. Methods: Several imidazo[2,1-b]thiazole–hydrazine-thiazoles 5a-g, 7a,b, 9a,b, 11a,b, 13, and 15a,b were generated using a molecular hybridization strategy and assessed against Mycobacterium tuberculosis (ATCC 25618) for their in vitro antituberculous activity. Results: Derivative 7b (MIC = 0.98 μg/mL) has shown the most promising antimycobacterial activity among the series tested. Brief structure-activity relationship studies found that the thiazole of chlorophenyl or pyridine, or coumarin had a significant relation with the antimycobacterial activity. Conclusion: The promising antimycobacterial activity of compound 7b compared with the reference drug suggests that this compound may contribute as a lead compound in the search for new potential antimycobacterial agents.

Ethnopharmacological Relevance: The burden of antimicrobial resistance demands a continued search for new antimicrobial drugs. The synthetic drugs used clinically have serious side effects. Natural products or compounds derived from natural sources show diversity in structure and play an essential role in drug discovery and development. Objective: Delphinium roylei is an important medicinal herb of Kashmir Himalaya, India. Traditionally this medicinal plant treats liver infections, skin problems, and chronic lower back pain. The current study evaluates the antimicrobial potential of various extracts by in -vitro and in -silico studies. Methods: Three extracts and 168 bioactive compounds analysed through LC-MS data, with the vast majority of them having therapeutic applications. D. roylei have been screened for the antimicrobial activity against bacteria (Escherichai coli, Streptococcus pneumonia, Haemophilus influenzae, Neisseria mucosa) and fungi (Candida albicans, Candida glabrata, Candida paropsilosis) species through molecular docking using autodock Vina, MD simulation and a broth microdilution method for minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) evaluation. Results: The extracts and the compounds analyzed through the LC-MS technique of Delphinium roylie showed significant antimicrobial activity. Conclusion: Our study established that the leaf extracts of Delphinium roylei exhibit antimicrobial activity and thus confirm its importance in traditional medicine.