Current Drug Discovery Technologies - Volume 11, Issue 2, 2014

Nicotinic acid is a well-known pharmaceutical in the vitamin B group that has attracted great interest in the past decades due to its significant importance in the treatment of the human diseases like pellagra. Also, nicotinic acid derivatives have been devoted to much attention due to their different pharmaceutical effects in the treatment of diseases. In view of this, the developments of nicotinic acid and its derivatives including their synthetic methods by using different substrates, and their structural modifications (e.g., substitution of one or more positions of pyridyl ring or acid) were reviewed in details. Drug molecules like nicotinic acid and its derivatives may exist in more than one crystal form in its solid state, known as polymorphs. Different polymorphs have different dissolution rates and aqueous solubility. Therefore, we reviewed structures of different crystal forms of nicotinic acid and its derivatives.

The pharmaceutical industry is experiencing comeback sales growth due in large part to the industry’s R&D efforts that center on biologics drug development. To facilitate that effort, tools are being developed for more effective biologic drug development. At the forefront of this effort is epitope characterization, in particular epitope binning, primarily due to the role an epitope plays in drug function. Here we detail the financial advantages of epitope binning including (1) increased R&D productivity due to increased work in process, (2) reduced number of “dead-end”candidates, and (3) increasedability to reengineer antibodies based on the epitope. With the arrival of high throughput biosensors, this manuscript serves as a call to push epitope binning earlier in the biological drug discovery process.

The Phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3k) is an important regulator of intracellular signalling pathways, like cell proliferation, migration, survival, and angiogenesis upon activation by growth factor or receptors. The PI3k’s pathway is frequently up-regulated in human cancers, thus inhibition of PI3k’s is a promising approach for cancer therapy. Many potent PI3k’s inhibitors have been reported so far and few of them are in clinical trial like GDC-0941, BGT-226, AZD-6482 and others are natural products etc.

For ages aspirin has established its value as an analgesic, anti-inflammatory drug, but in 1938, it was found to be a causative factor of gastric inflammation (ulcer). Later discovered non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) were found effective as aspirin but failed to overcome the goal of safer aspirin. As the method of prostaglandin inhibition through COX is a common mechanism to both the wanted and unwanted effects of aspirin and non-aspirin NSAIDs, the COX enzyme becomes a target for drug designers for the development of the “safe aspirin”. In the late 1990s, a new class of drug molecules collectively known as selective inhibitors of cyclooxygenase-2(Coxibs) was developed for the treatment of pain and inflammation. Coxibs developed were as efficacious as the common NSAIDs, but they are devoid of major side effect, the gastrointestinal bleeding. This review presents an overview on all the discovered COX-2 inhibitors, their physiological role, side effects and reasons of their withdrawal.

Predictive QSAR models for the inhibition activities of nitrogen-containing bisphosphonates (N-BPs) against farnesyl pyrophosphate synthase (FPPS) from Leishmania major (LeFPPS) were developed using a data set of 97 compounds. The QSAR models were developed through the use of Artificial Neural Networks and Random Forest learning procedures. The predictive ability of the models was tested by means of leave-one-out cross-validation; Q2values ranging from 0.45-0.79 were obtained for the regression models. The consensus prediction for the external evaluation set afforded high predictive power (Q2=0.76 for 35 compounds). The robustness of the QSAR models was also evaluated using a Y-randomization procedure. A small set of 6 new N-BPs were designed and synthesized applying the Michael reaction of tetrakis (trimethylsilyl) ethenylidene bisphosphonate with amines. The inhibition activities of these compounds against LeFPPS were predicted by the developed QSAR models and were found to correlate with their fungistatic activities against Candida albicans. The antifungal activities of N-BPs bearing n-butyl and cyclopropyl side chains exceeded the activities of Fluconazole, a triazole-containing antifungal drug. In conclusion, the N-BPs developed here present promising candidate drugs for the treatment of fungal diseases.

Chronic myeloid leukaemia (CML) is a disease induced by the BCR-ABL oncogene. Tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) were introduced in the late 1990s and have revolutionized the management of CML. The majority of such patients can now expect to live a normal life providing they continue to comply with TKI treatment. However, in a significant proportion of cases, TKI resistance develops over time, requiring a change of therapy. Over the past few years, multiple molecular mechanisms of resistance have been identified and some common themes have emerged. One is the development of resistance mutations in the drug target that prevent the drug from effectively inhibiting the respective TK domain. The second is activation of alternative molecules that maintain the signalling of key downstream pathways despite sustained inhibition of the original drug target. In this mini-review, we summarize the concepts underlying resistance, the specific examples known to date and the challenges of applying this knowledge to develop improved therapeutic strategies to prevent or overcome resistance.

Racecadotril is an antisecretory and antidiarrheal agent against watery diarrhoea in children. Racecadotril is a class II drug (as per Biopharmaceutical Classification System) with poor aqueous solubility and dissolution rate limited absorption. β-cyclodextrin complexation of solubility or dissolution rate limited drugs provides an amphiphilic complex with improved solubility and dissolution profile. Thus Racecadotril – β-cyclodextrin complex were prepared to improve its solubility and dissolution by imparting an environment of improved hydrophilicity. Racecadotril was complexed with β-cyclodextrin (in 1:1 and 1:2 molar ratios) by two different methods (solvent evaporation and kneading method). These inclusion complexes were evaluated for solubility, drug content, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), X ray powder diffraction (XRPD) and in vitro dissolution study. The highest drug content (30.83%) was found in complex made by kneading method (RK1:1) in 1:1 molar ratio. Complex prepared by solvent evaporation method (RSE1:1, RSE1:2) were found to be showing irregular disc shaped non-porous surface, while the complexes prepared by kneading method (RK1:1, RK1:2) showed rough, fluffy, non-porous and irregular surface in SEM. Solubility of the drug improved up to 2 to 3 folds in the complexes. The complex RK1:1 showed the greatest improvement in solubility (from 28.98 to76.56 μg/ml). The dissolution of the complexes was also found to be improved. Complex prepared by solvent evaporation method in 1:1 molar ratio (RSE1:1) showed a marked improvement in percent drug release (100.33%) than that of pure drug (52.58%) at the end of 1 hour in dissolution study. FTIR, DSC and XRPD data confirmed the formation of inclusion complex. It was concluded that water solubility of all the complexes were increased when the drug was complexed with β-CD in 1:1 molar ratio. The complex made in 1:1 molar ratio (irrespective of the method) showed better solubility and the dissolution profile as compared to the complex made in 1:2 molar ratio. It was concluded that the complex prepared by the solvent evaporation method showed better solubility and the dissolution due to better amorphization of the drug.

The aim of the investigation was to prepare nimesulide emulsion for incorporation in Aloe vera gel base to formulate ‘nimesulide – Aloe vera transemulgel’ (NAE) and to carryout in-vitro assessment and in-vivo anti-inflammatory studies of the product. Although the use of nimesulide is banned for oral administration, due to its potential for inducing hepatotoxicity and thrombocytopenia, the use of nimesulide for topical delivery is prominent in the treatment of many inflammatory conditions including rheumatoid arthritis. The drug loading capacity of transdermal gels is low for hydrophobic drugs such as nimesulide. Nimesulide can be effectively incorporated into emulgels (a combination of emulsion and gel). Aloe vera has a mild anti-inflammatory effect and in the present study Aloe vera gel was formulated and used as a gel base to prepare NAE. The emulgels thus prepared were evaluated for viscosity, pH, in-vitro permeation, stability and skin irritation test. In-vivo anti-inflammatory studies were performed using carrageenan induced hind paw edema method in Wistar rats. The results were compared with that of commercial nimesulide gel (CNG). From the in-vitro studies, effective permeation of nimesulide from NAE (53.04 %) was observed compared to CNG (44.72 %) at 30 min indicating better drug release from NAE. Topical application of the emulgel found no skin irritation. Stability studies proved the integrity of the formulation. The percentage of inhibition of edema was highest for the prepared NAE (67.4 % inhibition after 240 min) compared to CNG (59.6 %). From our results, it was concluded that the Aloe vera gel acts as an effective gel base to prepare nimesulide emulgel with high drug loading capacity (86.4 % drug content) compared to CNG (70.5 % drug content) with significant anti-inflammatory effect.