Newly synthesized derivatives with a thiosemicarbazide group reduce the viability of cancer cell lines. Acute toxicity assessment in Zebrafish (Danio rerio) early life stages.

Due to the variability and ability of tumor to mutate, as well as the heterogeneity of tumor tissue, such drugs are sought that would act selectively and multidirectionally on the cancer cell. Therefore, two newly synthesized semicarbazide structured substances were evaluated for anticancer properties in our study: 1a and 1b. In order to evaluate the cytotoxicity and selectivity of the tested compounds, MTT and Neutral Red uptake assay on cell lines (HEK293, LN229, 769-P, HepG2 and NCI-H1563) and cell cycle analysis were performed. Acute toxicity and cardiotoxicity were also evaluated in the zebrafish model. The tested compounds (1a, 1b) showed cytotoxic activity, with the greatest selectivity noted against the glioblastoma multiforme cell line (LN229). However, compound 1b showed stronger selective activity than 1a. Both of compounds were shown to significantly affect the M phase of the cell cycle. Whereas, the conducted toxicological examination of newly synthesized thiosemicarbazide derivates showed, that direct exposition of Danio rerio embryos to compound 1a, but not 1b, causes a concentration-dependent increase in developmental malformations, indicating possible teratogenic effects.

Evaluation of developmental toxicity in zebrafish embryos and antiproliferative potential against human tumor cell lines of new derivatives containing 4-nitrophenyl group.

The aim of the studies was to evaluate the antiproliferative potential against human tumor cell lines of newly synthetized derivatives containing 4-nitrophenyl group, as well as its impact on developmental toxicity in zebrafish model. We selected 1-(4-nitrobenzoyl)-4-ethylsemicarbazide (APS-1) and 1-[(4-nitrophenyl)acetyl]-4-hexyl-thiosemicarbazide (APS-18) for research. The antiproliferative properties of semicarbazide derivatives were assessed against human cancer cell lines derived from hepatocellular adenocarcinoma (HepG2), renal cell carcinoma (769-P), non-small cell lung cancer (NCI-H1563) and glioblastoma multiforme (LN229) in comparison to the physiological human embryonic kidney (HEK-293) cell line. The influence of the tested substances on the cell cycle and apoptosis was also evaluated. Fish embryo acute toxicity test (FET) was performed based on OECD Guidelines (Test No. 236), and was carried out for the first 5 days post fertilization. The following concentrations of APS-1 and APS-18 were tested: 125-2000 µM and 0.125-1000 µM, respectively. The presented studies on the antiproliferative properties of the new semicarbazide derivatives showed that the compounds APS-1 and APS-18 reduce the viability of human tumor lines. Particularly noteworthy is the strong and selective antiproliferative activity of APS-18 against all neoplastic cell lines, in particular against glioblastoma. Against this tumor line, the compound APS-1 showed an effective inhibitory effect. In the FET we noted that the direct exposure of zebrafish embryos to APS-1 and APS-18 in used range of concentration did not cause morphological abnormalities, including cardiotoxicity. On basis of obtained outcomes it could be concluded that APS-1 and APS-18 may constitute models for further research, design and synthesis of new, safer drugs with more favorable anticancer properties.

Antioxidant Activity of 1,2,4-Triazole and its Derivatives: A Mini-Review.

The information about the presence of free radicals in biological materials was given for the first time about 70 years ago. Since then, numerous scientific studies have been conducted and the science of free radicals was introduced. Today we know that free radicals are by-products of enzymatic reactions occurring in the organism. They are produced during endogenous processes such as cell respiration, phagocytosis, biosynthesis, catalysis, and biotransformation. They can also be produced by exogenous processes (radiation, sunlight, heavy metals, bacteria, fungi, protozoa, and viruses). The overproduction of free radicals affects the aging processes, Oxidative Stress (OS) and takes part in the pathogenesis of various diseases. Among them are cancer, rheumatoid arthritis, neurodegenerative diseases: Alzheimer and Parkinson, pulmonary diseases, atherosclerosis, and DNA damage. Compounds with antioxidant activity are very important nowadays because they allow organisms to keep a balance between the production of free radicals and the speed of their neutralization in the body. Next to the natural antioxidants (flavonoids, carotenoids, vitamins, etc.), synthetic ones are also of great importance. Among synthetic compounds with antioxidant activity are 1,2,4-triazoles and their derivatives. 1,2,4-Triazoles are heterocyclic compounds with three nitrogen atoms. Due to a broad spectrum of biological activities, these derivatives have been of interest to scientists for many years. Some of them are also used as drugs. The finding of new synthetic compounds with antioxidant features in the triazole group has become an important problem of medicinal chemistry.

New Application of 1,2,4-Triazole Derivatives as Antitubercular Agents. Structure, In Vitro Screening and Docking Studies.

A series of 1,2,4-triazole derivatives were synthesized and assigned as potential anti-tuberculosis substances. The molecular and crystal structures for the model compounds C1, C12, and C13 were determined using X-ray analysis. The X-ray investigation confirmed the synthesis pathway and the assumed molecular structures for analyzed 1,2,4-triazol-5-thione derivatives. The conformational preferences resulting from rotational degrees of freedom of the 1,2,4-triazole ring substituents were characterized. The lipophilicity (logP) and electronic parameters as the energy of frontier orbitals, dipole moments, NBO net charge distribution on the atoms, and electrostatic potential distribution for all structures were calculated at AM1 and DFT/B3LYP/6-311++G(d,p) level. The in vitro test was done against M. tuberculosis H37Ra, M. phlei, M. smegmatis, and M. timereck. The obtained results clearly confirmed the antituberculosis potential of compound C4, which turned out to be the most active against Mycobacterium H37Ra (MIC = 0.976 µg/mL), Mycobaterium pheli (MIC = 7.81 µg/mL) and Mycobacerium timereck (62.6 µg/mL). Satisfactory results were obtained with compounds C8, C11, C14 versus Myc. H37Ra, Myc. pheli, Myc. timereck (MIC = 31.25-62.5 µg/mL). The molecular docking studies were carried out for all investigated compounds using the Mycobacterium tuberculosis cytochrome P450 CYP121 enzyme as molecular a target connected with antimycobacterial activity.

1,2,4-Triazolin-5-thione derivatives with anticancer activity as CK1γ kinase inhibitors.

The optimization and synthesis of new CK2 and CK1 inhibitors are the basis for the development of new therapeutic strategies for the treatment of cancer and neurodegenerative disorders associated with overexpression and abnormal functioning of these enzymes. Triazole derivatives appear to be especially interesting as potential kinase inhibitors. In this context we synthesized a series of 1,2,4-triazolin-5-thione derivatives as CK1γ kinase inhibitors. The antiproliferative activity of synthesized compounds was assessed against cancer cells: human lung adenocarcinoma (A549), human hepatoma (HepG2), and human breast adenocarcinoma (MCF-7). Compound 1 exhibited antiproliferative potency against A549 cancer cells and was characterized by a selective antiproliferative effect. Additionally, this compound has high apoptotic activity against A549, HepG2, MCF-7 cells and induced only slight amount of necrotic cells in these cell lines. In order to decipher the mechanism of anticancer activity of the studied compounds PASS software was used and these compounds were assayed for the inhibition of CK1γ and CK2α kinases. The reported series of 1,2,4-triazolin-5-thiones inhibits CK1γ and CK2α kinases in micromolar range. The most active compound shows activity against isoform γ3 which at concentration of 50 µM reduced the kinase activity by 69% while at 100 µM by 80%. CK2α was found to be less susceptible to the effects of the triazoles tested, as the reduction in kinase activity by 29% was observed for compound 15, and by 27% for compound 1 only at the concentration of 100 µM. The inhibition of CK1γ and CK2α kinases was rationalized using molecular docking.

Synthesis and Antioxidant Activity of New Norcantharidin Analogs.

New norcantharidin analogs were designed and obtained as compounds with biological activity. As a starting material, exo-7-oxabicyclo[2.2.1]heptane-2,3-dicarboxylic acid anhydride was used. Three groups of compounds: dicarboximides, triazoles and thiazolidines were obtained in multistep reactions. The 1 H- and 13 C-NMR spectra were used to confirm the structures of all obtained products and they were in agreement with the proposed structure of substances. All derivatives were screened for their antioxidant activity. The most promising group was dicarboximides (1-4, 6). Derivatives 2-4 displayed antioxidant activity with EC50 =7.75-10.89 µg/ml, which may be comparable to strong antioxidant Trolox (EC50 =6.13 µg/ml). Excellent activity with EC50 =10.75 µg/ml also presented norcantharidin analog with 1,2,4-triazole system (12).

Novel Antibacterial Compounds and their Drug Targets - Successes and Challenges.

Infectious diseases are one of the most important and urgent health problems in the world. According to the World Health Organization (WHO) statistics, infectious and parasitic diseases are a cause of about 16% of all deaths worldwide and over 40% of deaths in Africa. A considerable progress that has been made during last hundred years in the fight against infectious diseases, in particular bacterial infections, can be attributed mainly to three factors: (1) the general improvement of living conditions, in particular sanitation; (2) development of vaccines and (3) development of efficient antibacterial drugs. Although considerable progress in reduction of the number of cases of bacterial infections, especially in lethal cases, has been made, continued cases and outbreaks of these diseases persist, which is caused by different contributing factors. Indeed, during last sixty years antibacterial drugs were used against various infectious diseases caused by bacterial pathogens with an undoubtable success. The most fruitful period for antibiotic development lasted from 40's to 60's of the last century and resulted in the majority of antibiotics currently on the market, which were obtained by screening actinomycetes derived from soil. Although the market for antibacterial drugs is nowadays greater than 25 billion US dollars per year, novel antibacterial drugs are still demanded due to developed resistance of many pathogenic bacteria against current antibiotics. In the last five years, one can observe a dramatic increase in cases of resistant bacteria strains (e.g. Klebsiella pneumoniae and E. coli) which are responsible for difficult to treat pneumonia and infections of urinary tract. The development of resistant bacteria strains is a side effect of antibiotic application for treatment: the infections become untreatable as a result of the existence of antibiotic-tolerant persisters. In this review, we discuss the challenges in antibacterial drug discovery, including the molecular basis of drug resistance, drug targets for novel antibacterial drugs, and new compounds (since year 2010) from different chemical classes with antibacterial activity, focusing on structure-activity relationships.

Synthesis, antibacterial and antiproliferative potential of some new 1-pyridinecarbonyl-4-substituted thiosemicarbazide derivatives.

In this study, the antibacterial, cytotoxic and antiproliferative activities of novel thiosemicarbazide derivatives were assessed. Our results demonstrated that some of the novel compounds possess good antibacterial properties against Staphylococcus epidermidis, Streptococcus mutans and Streptococcussanguinis and are only slightly cytotoxic; thus, they exhibit an excellent therapeutic index, which is higher than that of ethacridine lactate. Moreover, our data showed that compounds 2 and 4 have an antiproliferative activity against human breast adenocarcinoma and human hepatocellular carcinoma cell lines. We expect that the novel thiosemicarbazide derivatives can be used as agents for treatment of dental caries and also for chemotherapy support.

New Norcantharidin Analogs: Synthesis and Anticancer Activity.

The reaction of direct condensation between S-ethyl-N-(7-oxabicyclo-[2.2.1]heptane-2,3-dicarbonyl)isothiosemicarbazide (1) and primary amines was used for synthesizing new N-substituted amides of 3-(3-ethylthio-1,2,4-triazol-5-yl)-7-oxabicyclo-[2.2.1]heptane-2-carboxylic acid (2-12) as norcantharadin analogs. Moreover, the anticancer activity of the obtained compounds was studied. Among all compounds, the N-3-methylbutyl amide of 3-(3-ethylthio-1,2,4-triazol-5-yl)-7-oxabicyclo-[2.2.1]heptane-2-carboxylic acid (4) presented selective in vitro toxic and antiproliferative effects against the human hepatoma cell line Hep3B, without affecting normal human liver stellate cells (LX-2 cell line).

Retention-property relationships of 1,2,4-triazoles by micellar and reversed-phase liquid chromatography.

The properties of 21 1,2,4-triazoles, relevant to their pharmacokinetics, were investigated using experimental methods and in silico calculations. The lipophilicities of the compounds were determined experimentally using reversed-phase chromatography and liquid chromatography with micellar mobile phases, or they were calculated in silico from their molecular structures. In the reversed-phase technique, an octadecylsilyl, immobilized artificial membrane and immobilized cholesterol were used as the stationary phases. Biological descriptors of compounds, i.e. log BB, log KHSA, Caco-2, and fu,brain, were determined in silico by using ACD/Percepta software. Principal component analysis was used to indicate similarities between chromatographic, partitioning, and biological variables. Highly significant relationships were determined to exist between the chromatographic parameters and the biological descriptors, especially for log BB and log KHSA. The chromatographic parameters measured on the cholesterol column were recommended for use in predicting the lipophilic and biological properties of the 1,2,4-triazoles that were tested.

3-Benzyl-4-ethyl-1H-1,2,4-triazole-5(4H)-thione.

The title compound, C(11)H(13)N(3)S, exists in the 5-thioxo tautomeric form. The benzene ring exhibits disorder with a refined ratio of 0.77 (2):0.23 (2) for components A and B with a common bridgehead C atom. The 1,2,4-triazole ring is essentially planar, with a maximum deviation of 0.002 (3) Šfor the benzyl-substituted C atom, and forms dihedral angles of 88.94 (18) and 86.56 (49)° with the benzene rings of components A and B, respectively. The angle between the plane of the ethyl chain and the mean plane of 1,2,4-triazole ring is 88.55 (15)° and this conformation is stabilized by an intra-molecular C-H⋯S contact. In the crystal, pairs of N-H⋯S hydrogen bonds link mol-ecules into inversion dimers. π-π inter-actions are observed between the triazole and benzene rings, with centroid-centroid separations of 3.547 (4) and 3.544 (12) Šfor components A and B, and slippages of 0.49 (6) and 0.58 (15) Å, respectively.

Biological activity of novel N-substituted amides of endo-3-(3-methylthio-1,2,4-triazol-5-yl)bicyclo[2.2.1]hept-5-ene-2-carboxylic acid and N-substituted amides of 1-(5-methylthio-1,2,4-triazol-3-yl)cyclohexane-2-carboxylic acids.

N-Substituted amides of endo-3-(3-methylthio-1,2,4-triazol-5-yl)bicyclo[2.2.1]hept-5-ene-2-carboxylic acid and 1-(5-methylthio-1,2,4-triazol-3-yl)cyclohexane-2-carboxylic acid were prepared by the condensation reaction of endo-S-methyl-N1-(bicyclo[2.2.1]hept-5-ene-2,3-dicarbonyl)isothiosemicarbazide and S-methyl-N1-(cyclohexane-2,3-dicarbonyl)isothiosemicarbazide with primary amines. The synthesized compounds were screened for their microbiological and pharmacological activities.

Quantification of Lipophilicity of 1,2,4-Triazoles Using Micellar Chromatography.

High-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), over-pressured-layer chromatography (OPLC) and thin-layer chromatography (TLC) techniques with micellar mobile phases were proposed to evaluate the lipophilicity of 21 newly synthesized 1,2,4-triazoles, compounds of potential importance in medicine or agriculture as fungicides. Micellar parameters log k(m) were compared with extrapolated R(M0) values determined from reversed-phase (RP) TLC experimental data obtained on RP-8 stationary phases as well as with log P values (Alog Ps, AClog P, Alog P, Mlog P, KowWin, xlog P2 and xlog P3) calculated from molecular structures of solutes tested. The results obtained by applying principal component analysis (PCA) and linear regression showed considerable similarity between partition and retention parameters as alternative lipophilicity descriptors, and indicated micellar chromatography as a suitable technique to study lipophilic properties of organic substances. In micellar HPLC, RP-8e column (Purospher) was applied, whereas in OPLC and TLC, RP-CN plates were applied, which was the novelty of this study and allowed the use of micellar effluents in planar chromatography measurements.

Synthesis, structure elucidation and antitumour activity of N-substituted amides of 3-(3-ethylthio-1,2,4-triazol-5-yl)propenoic acid.

New N-substituted amides of 3-(3-ethylthio-1,2,4-triazol-5-yl)propenoic acid (2-12) were designed and prepared by the condensation reaction of exo-S-ethyl-7-oxabicyclo-[2.2.1]-hept-5-ene-2,3-dicarbonyl isothiosemicarbazide (1) with primary amines. The chemical structure of all compounds was confirmed by IR, (1)H NMR, (13)C NMR spectra, the X-ray crystallography (for compounds 8, 11, 12) and elemental analysis. Moreover, compounds 9-11 were screened for their anticancer activity. Compounds 9 (in concentrations of 0.32 mM and 0.16 mM), 10 (in concentrations of 0.28 mM and 0.14 mM), and 11 (in concentrations of 0.35 mM and 0.17 mM) were found to be evidently effective in vitro against lung cell line (IC50). The distinctly marked antiproliferative effect of compounds 9 and 10 in breast carcinoma cells in vitro was ascertained. Moreover, the lowest cytotoxicity of compound 9 in concentrations of 0.16 mM and 0.03 mM against the normal skin fibroblast cell line and breast carcinoma cell in vitro after 24- and 48-h periods of incubation was noticed in this study.

Synthesis and biological activity of new derivatives of 3-phenoxymethyl-4-R-D2-1,2,4-triazoline-5-thione.

New derivatives of 1,2,4-triazoline-5-thione system were obtained. The effects of both these compounds AP-I (3-phenoxymethyl-4-phenyl-D2-1,2,4-triazoline-5-thione) and AP-II (3-phenoxymethyl-4-ethyl-D2-1,2,4-triazoline-5-thione) on the central nervous system (CNS) of mice were studied.