Combinatorial Chemistry & High Throughput Screening - Volume 14, Issue 2, 2011

The antioxidative activities of the methanol extracts obtained from twelve commonly consumed wild edible mushrooms were investigated according to the phosphomolybdenum method, inhibition of linoleic acid peroxidation, reducing power, metal chelating, O2˙-, DPPH˙, peroxide and H2O2 scavenging activity in the Black Sea Region of Turkey, and compared to standard antioxidant compounds such as α-tocopherol, butylated hydroxyanisole (BHA), butylated hydroxytoluene (BHT), and trolox. Total phenolic compounds, flavonoids, anthocyanins, ascorbic acid, β-carotene and lycopene in the extracts were measured. The antimicrobial activities of extracts were also evalated against gram (-) and (+) bacteria and yeast with disc diffusion method. Hydnum repandum, Lactarius delicious, Lactarius camphoratus, Lactarius piperatus, Ramaria flava, and Agaricus bisporus were greater than α-tocopherol and BHT on antioxidant activity. The lipid peroxidation of L. camphoratus and Lactarius volemus was excellent, and was 58.05% and 61.44% respectively. The DPPH˙ scavenging effects decreased in the order of R. flava>BHT>Macrolepiota procera>L. camphoratus>L. piperatus>Lactarius volemus>α-tocopherol and were, at 500 μg/ mL, and were 80.38, 76.61, 69.74, 61.55, 61.47, 61.09, 60.65%, respectively. All the extracts of mushroom also had the stronger chelating effect according to standards. The O2˙- scavenging effect of extracts of the mushroom species was in order of R. flava>Boletus edulis>Leatiporus sulphureus>M. procera>standards. L. piperatus, L. camphorates, L. volemus, A. bisporus, Chanterellus cibarius, L. sulphureus, H. repandum showed strong antimicrobial activity, especially on E. coli. H. repandum exhibited to be more effective on P. aeruginosa than other bacterial strains.

Evidence suggests that environmental exposure to estrogen-like compounds can cause adverse effects in humans and wildlife. The Endocrine Disruptor Screening and Testing Advisory Committee (EDSTAC) has advised screening of 87,000 compounds in the interest of human safety. This may best be accomplished by pre-screening using quantitative structure-activity relationship (QSAR) modelling. The present study aimed to develop in silico QSARs based on natural, semi-synthetic, synthetic, and phytoestrogens, to predict the potential estrogenic toxicity of pesticides. A diverse set of 170 compounds including steroidal-, synthetic- and phytoestrogens, as well as pesticides was used to construct the QSAR models using artificial neural networks (ANNs). Mean correlation coefficients between experimentally measured and predicted binding affinities were all greater than 0.7 and models had few false negative results, an important consideration for screening tools. This study demonstrated the utility of ANNs as QSAR models for pre-screening of potential endocrine disruptors.

Natural products (NPs) are combinatorial chemical libraries with diversities in chemical structures and pharmacological activities. Screening active compounds is in many cases an important factor in drug discovery. It was not easy to screen out the bioactive compounds from complex extracts consisting of many NPs. Development of rapid, effective and accurate methods is in high demand. During last decades, mass spectrometry (MS)-based strategies, combining isolation, structures, and bioactivity in a single run, were programmed in the NPs screening. The current article reviews different assay formats and applications of MS-based methods for screening of active NPs. This review is divided into three sections based on methods classification. The first part introduces binding-based screening methods that directly assess the binding characteristics of a candidate molecule to its target. The second part describes function-based screening methods that monitor the functional output of a target-dependent biochemical reaction. The third part briefly discusses serum pharmacochemistry-based screening methods that analyze absorbed components and metabolites in plasma after oral administration of NPs extracts.

A straightforward and effective procedure for the solution phase preparation of a 2-aminothiazole combinatorial library is described. Reaction, work-up and isolation of the title compounds as free bases was accomplished in a fully automated fashion using the Chemspeed ASW 2000 automated synthesizer. The compounds were obtained in good yields and excellent purities without any further purification procedure.

Organic reactions performed in the absence of solvent in domestic ovens without appropriate temperature control are generally considered as not reproducible, particularly when different instruments are used. For this reason, reproducibility has historically been one of the major issues associated with Microwave-Assisted Organic Synthesis (MAOS) especially when domestic ovens are involved. The lack of reproducibility limits the general applicability and the scale up of these reactions. In this work several solvent-free reactions previously carried out in domestic ovens have been translated into a single-mode microwave reactor and then scaled up in a multimode oven. The results show that most of these reactions, although not considered as reproducible, can be easily updated and applied in microwave reactors using temperature-controlled conditions. Furthermore, computational calculations can assist to explain and/or predict whether a reaction will be reproducible or not.

Arylamine N-acetyltransferases (NATs) are a family of enzymes found in eukaryotes and prokaryotes. While the precise endogenous function of NAT remains unknown for most organisms, recent evidence has shown that the expression of human NAT1 is up-regulated in estrogen receptor positive breast cancer. Additionally, NAT in mycobacteria is required for mycobacterial cell wall biosynthesis and survival of the organisms within macrophage. It is therefore important to develop small molecule inhibitors of NATs as molecular tools to study the function of NATs in various organisms. Such inhibitors may also prove useful in future drug design, for example in the development of anti tubercular agents. We describe a high throughput screen of a proprietary library of 5016 drug-like compounds against three prokaryotic NAT enzymes and two eukaryotic NAT enzymes.

Chemical and physiological properties are related to individual or bioactive compounds such as essential oils, terpenoids, flavonoids, volatile compounds and other chemicals which are present in natural products in low concentrations (e.g. ppm or ppb). For many years, classical separation, chromatographic and spectrometric techniques such as high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), gas chromatography (GC), liquid chromatography (LC) and mass spectrometry (MS) have been used for the elucidation of isolated compounds from different matrices. Hence, the use of standard separation, chromatographic and spectrometric methods was found useful in chemical and both plant and animal physiology studies, for fingerprinting and comparing natural and synthetic samples, as well as to identify single active compounds. It has been generally accepted that a single analytical technique will not provide sufficient visualization of the metabolome, hence holistic techniques are needed for comprehensive analysis. In the last 40 years near infrared (NIR) spectroscopy became one of the most attractive and used methods of analyzing agricultural related products and plant materials which provide simultaneous, rapid and non-destructive quantitation of major. This technique has been reported to determine other minor compounds in plant materials such as volatile compounds and elements. The aim of this short review is to describe some recent applications of NIR spectroscopy combined with multivariate data analysis for high throughput screening of metabolites with an emphasis on food and medical applications.

Combinatorial cyclizations of imidates and hydrazides with methylene linked R groups, generated from the corresponding nitriles and carboxylic acids, respectively, provided a large library of 3,5-dimethylene substituted 1,2,4- trizoles.

Powder layering technique was evaluated using laboratory scale centrifugal granulator instrument to prepare extended release pellet dosage form of ketoprofen. Ethyl cellulose and shellac polymers were used for drug layering and extended release coating in the same apparatus. Inert sugar spheres were intermittently treated with drug powder and binding solution. Combination of ethyl cellulose (45cps) and shellac was evaluated as binders at different levels (1:3 ratio, at 6%, 12%, 16% and 21%w/w polymer) for drug loading and for extended release coating (1:3 ratio at 2%, 4% and 7% w/w polymer). Pellets were evaluated for drug release study using paddle apparatus in pH 6.8 Phosphate buffer, 900ml at 100 rpm. Ethyl cellulose and shellac when used as binder during drug layering did not extend the ketoprofen release beyond 4h. However, coating of drug loaded pellets using ethyl cellulose and shellac resulted in extended release profile of ketoprofen for about 10h. Ethyl cellulose coating alone at a level of 3% w/w resulted in extended release profile. Coated pellets were evaluated for sphericity, Hardness-Friability Index and scanning electron microscopy. Scanning electron micrographs of the pellets showed a uniform coating of polymer on the core pellets substantiating the use of centrifugal granulator for extended release coating. Release pattern from the optimized batch was best explained by Higuchi's model. The drug release pattern from the pellets was found to be Non-Fickian anomalous type, involving both diffusion and erosion mechanism. Accelerated stability study of the coated pellets filled in hard gelatin capsule was conducted for 3-month period and observed for the effect on drug release profile.