Mini Reviews in Medicinal Chemistry - Volume 16, Issue 17, 2016

The present mini-review highlights recent developments on antitumor activity of metal-based therapeutics which have been a subject of researches for the last few decades. In 1965, Rosenberg found that during an electrolysis on platinum electrodes a complex of Pt is generated which inhibited to a great extent a binary fission in Escherichia coli bacteria. This discovery started a new chapter in medicinal chemistry and the interesting properties of cisplatin were soon applied in cancer therapy especially in curing genitourinary tumors. However, various side effects limited its use in medical treatment. Since then a great number of other metal-organic complexes based on platinum, palladium, ruthenium, gold, copper, silver, rhodium, osmium, rhenium, iridium and others have been synthesized. Among them, NAMI-A and KP1019 have recently undergone clinical trials. In this review paper we report a detailed account of metal complexes with phosphorus-based ligands which are of particular interest in therapeutics.

Human African Trypanosomiasis (HAT) is an endemic parasitic disease of sub-Saharan Africa, caused by two subspecies of protozoa belonging to Trypanosoma genus: T. brucei gambiense and T. brucei rhodesiense. In this context the inhibition of the papain-family cysteine proteases rhodesain and TbCatB has to be considered a promising strategy for HAT treatment. Rhodesain, the major cathepsin L-like cysteine protease of T. brucei rhodesiense, is a lysosomal protease essential for parasite survival. It is involved in parasite invasivity, allowing it to cross the blood-brain barrier (BBB) of the human host, causing the second lethal stage of the disease. Moreover, it plays an important role in immunoevasion, being involved in the turnover of variant surface glycoproteins of the T. brucei coat and in the degradation of immunoglobulins, avoiding a specific immune response by the host cells. On the other hand TbCatB, a cathepsin B-like cysteine protease, present in minor abundance in T. brucei, showed a key role in the degradation of host transferrin, which is necessary for iron acquisition by the parasite. In this review article we now discuss the most active peptide, peptidomimetic and non-peptide rhodesain and TbCatB inhibitors as valuable strategy to treat HAT, due also to the complementary role of the two T. brucei proteases.

Puerarin is an isoflavonoid extracted from the roots of Pueraria lobata in the Pueraria thomsonii family. Puerarin displays a broad range of pharmacological activities and has been widely used in clinics. However, puerarin’s low solubility and permeability result in poor gastrointestinal absorption and low bioavailability. Simply increasing the dose does not effectively increase bioavailability and might lead to toxicity and side effects. Considerable progress has been achieved in the recent years on puerarin structural biotransformation using microorganisms and free enzymes. Increasingly numerous new puerarin derivatives with high solubility and bioactivity have been developed. This paper reviews recent progress in the biotransformation of puerarin.

BRD4, an epigenetic regulator that recognizes and binds the acetylated lysine residues in histone, has been reported as a potential therapeutic target for cancers. Since the first BRD4 inhibitor JQ1 developed in 2010, numerous BRD4 inhibitors have been discovered in past five years. In this review, we have systematically summarized a series of BRD4 binding compounds, which are divided into five categories based on the similarity of their chemical structures and respectively referred as JQ1 derivatives, tetrahydroquinoline derivatives, 3,5- dimethylisoxazole derivatives, 2-thiazolidinone derivatives and others. The binding affinities for each class of compounds are also discussed.

Ailments caused by helminth parasites are global causing different types of clinical complications with permanent and long term morbidity in humans. Although huge advances have been made in medical sciences the effectiveness of available anthelmintics are still quite limited. Starting from the 50’s, most importance was given to synthetic compounds for developing remedies from them, however, the traditional knowledge of medicine of different countries continued to provide us clues against this widespread health problem. Natural products or structural analogs with diverse structures are always been the major sources for discovering new therapeutics and in recent past different active compounds have also been identified form these plant sources having anthelmintic properties. Although compounds of diverse chemical nature and classes were identified, most active ones belong to either phenol or terpene in broad chemical nature. The mechanism of action of these phytotherapeutics is usually multi-targeted and can act against the helminth parasites through diverse spectrum of activities. In this review we summarized the effective anthelmintics belong to either phenolics or terpenoids and highlighted the major way of their effectiveness. This also highlights the recent development of new therapeutic strategies against helminth parasites in the light of recent advances of knowledge. In addition, developing efficient strategies to promote apoptosis and disturbing redox status in them by natural products can provide us a clue in antifilarial drug developmental research and crucial unmet medical need.