Density Functional Theory Calculations: A Useful Tool to Investigate Mechanisms of 1,3-Dipolar Cycloaddition Reactions.

The present review contains a representative sampling of mechanistic studies, which have appeared in the literature in the last 5 years, on 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition reactions, using DFT calculations. Attention is focused on the mechanistic insights into 1,3-dipoles of propargyl/allenyl type and allyl type such as aza-ylides, nitrile oxides and azomethyne ylides and nitrones, respectively. The important role played by various metal-chiral-ligand complexes and the use of chiral eductors in promoting the site-, regio-, diastereo- and enatioselectivity of the reaction are also outlined.

Design of New Schiff Bases and Their Heavy Metal Ion Complexes for Environmental Applications: A Molecular Dynamics and Density Function Theory Study.

Schiff bases (SBs) are important ligands in coordination chemistry due to their unique structural properties. Their ability to form complexes with metal ions has been exploited for the environmental detection of emerging water contaminants. In this work, we evaluated the complexation ability of three newly proposed SBs, 1-3, by complete conformational analysis, using a combination of Molecular Dynamics and Density Functional Theory studies, to understand their ability to coordinate toxic heavy metal (HMs) ions. From this study, it emerges that all the ligands present geometries that make them suitable to complex HMs through the N-imino moieties or, in the case of 3, with the support of the oxygen atoms of the ethylene diether chain. In particular, this ligand shows the most promising coordination behavior, particularly with Pb2+.

Effect of Ferulic Acid Loaded in Nanoparticle on Tissue Transglutaminase Expression Levels in Human Glioblastoma Cell Line.

Glioblastoma (GBM) is one of the most aggressive cancers, characterized by a decrease in antioxidant levels. Evidence has demonstrated that ferulic acid (FA), a natural antioxidant particularly abundant in vegetables and fruits, could be a promising candidate for GBM treatment. Since FA shows a high instability that compromises its therapeutic application, it has been encapsulated into Nanostructured Lipid Carriers (NLCs) to improve its bioavailability in the brain. It has been demonstrated that tissue transglutaminase (TG2) is a multi-functional protein implicated in many physiological and pathological processes, including cancer. TG2 is also involved in GBM correlated with metastasis formation and drug resistance. Therefore, the evaluation of TG2 expression levels and its cellular localization are important to assess the anti-cancer effect of FA against GBM cancer. Our results have demonstrated that treatment with free FA and FA-NLCs in the U87-MG cancer cell line differently modified TG2 localization and expression levels. In the cells treated with free FA, TG2 appeared expressed both in the cytosol and in the nucleus, while the treatment with FA-NLCs showed that the protein is exclusively localized in the cytosol, exerting its pro-apoptotic effect. Therefore, our data suggest that FA loaded in NLCs could represent a promising natural agent for supplementing the current anti-cancer drugs used for the treatment of GBM.

Development of AMBER Parameters for Molecular Simulations of Selected Boron-Based Covalent Ligands.

Boron containing compounds (BCCs) aroused increasing interest in the scientific community due to their wide application as drugs in various fields. In order to design new compounds hopefully endowed with pharmacological activity and also investigate their conformational behavior, the support of computational studies is crucial. Nevertheless, the suitable molecular mechanics parameterization and the force fields needed to perform these simulations are not completely available for this class of molecules. In this paper, Amber force field parameters for phenyl-, benzyl-, benzylamino-, and methylamino-boronates, a group of boron-containing compounds involved in different branches of the medicinal chemistry, were created. The robustness of the obtained data was confirmed through molecular dynamics simulations on ligand/ß-lactamases covalent complexes. The ligand torsional angles, populated over the trajectory frames, were confirmed by values found in the ligand geometries, located through optimizations at the DFT/B3LYP/6-31g(d) level, using water as a solvent. In summary, this study successfully provided a library of parameters, opening the possibility to perform molecular dynamics simulations of this class of boron-containing compounds.

Chemoselective Oxidation of Isoxazolidines with Ruthenium Tetroxide: A Successful Intertwining of Combined Theoretical and Experimental Data.

The direct oxidation reaction of isoxazolidines plays an important role in organic chemistry, leading to the synthesis of biologically active compounds. In this paper, we report a computational mechanistic study of RuO4-catalyzed oxidation of differently N-substituted isoxazolidines 1a-c. Attention was focused on the endo/exo oxidation selectivity. For all the investigated compounds, the exo attack is preferred to the endo one, showing exo percentages growing in parallel with the stability order of transient carbocations found along the reaction pathway. The study has been supported by experimental data that nicely confirm the modeling results.

On the size, shape and energetics of the hydration shell around alkanes.

A large number of clathrate-like cages have been proposed as the very first hydration shell of alkanes. The cages include canonical structures commonly found in clathrate hydrates and many others, not previously reported, derived from the carbon fullerene cavities. These structures have a rich and variegated form, which can adapt to the shape and conformation of the solute. They avoid "wasting" hydrogen bonds, while minimizing the volume cage and maximizing the solute-solvent van der Waals interactions. DFT/M06-2X and MP2 ab initio calculations give comparable structural and energetic results although the latter predicts slightly larger cages for a given solute. It is shown that the van der Waals interactions are substantial and the large exoenergetic values found for isobutane and cyclopentane provide an explanation for the surprising high melting points of related hydrates at room pressure. The encaging enthalpy for various hydrocarbons is similar to the enthalpy of solution measured at a temperature just above the melting point of aqueous hydrocarbon solutions, thus indicating that water molecules should not deviate too much from the configuration with O-H bonds tangentially oriented with respect to the solute surface. The computed trend differs from the enthalpy of solution measured at room temperature, thus the very first hydration shell departs, up to a certain degree, from the clathrate-like structures.

Novel 3,3-disubstituted oxindole derivatives. Synthesis and evaluation of the anti-proliferative activity.

3,3-Disubstituted oxindole derivatives bearing a nitrogen atom at the C-3 position have been synthesized starting from 3-alkyl oxindole through a metal free pathway. These derivatives have been tested in five human tumor cell lines (PC3, MCF7, SW620, MiaPaca2 and A375) and on primary cells (PBMCs) from healthy donors providing compound 6d showing a strong anticancer effect in all cancer lines on the low micromolar range.

Transient and intermediate carbocations in ruthenium tetroxide oxidation of saturated rings.

The ruthenium tetroxide-mediated oxidation of cyclopentane, tetrahydrofuran, tetrahydrothiophene and N-substituted pyrrolidines has been studied computationally by DFT and topological (analysis of the electron localization function, ELF) methods. In agreement with experimental observations and previous DFT calculations, the rate-limiting step of the reaction takes place through a highly asynchronous (3 + 2) concerted cycloaddition through a single transition structure (one kinetic step). The ELF analysis identifies the reaction as a typical one-step-two-stages process and corroborates the existence of a transient carbocation. In the case of pyrrolidines, the carbocation is completely stabilized as an energy minimum in the form of an iminium ion and the reaction takes place in two steps.

Copper(II)-Catalyzed Alkoxyhalogenation of Alkynyl Ureas and Amides as a Route to Haloalkylidene-Substituted Heterocycles.

A highly effective synthesis of haloalkylidene-substituted heterocycles by copper(II)-catalyzed cyclization of alkynyl ureas and secondary amides has been developed. The reaction, which involves a catalytic amount of CuCl2 and a stoichiometric amount of N-halosuccinimide, occurs selectively through an alkoxyhalogenation process. Alternatively, alkoxychlorination and alkoxybromination reactions can be performed working solely with stoichiometric CuCl2 and CuBr2, respectively.

Interfacial water at the trialanine hydrophilic surface: a DFT electronic structure and bottom-up investigation.

DFT-M062X quantum chemical computations on the Ala3H(+)·nH2O (n up to 37) complexes have been performed to model for hydration effects on the molecular properties of protonated trialanine. Following simple rules to arrange water molecules around the peptide, geometry optimization allows us to find four minima corresponding to the unfolded extended (ß) and polyproline II (PPII) conformations. The peptide is incorporated into the network of hydrogen bonds of interfacial water molecules with a hydration energy of about -85 kcal mol(-1). The progressive hydration of the peptide shows a more efficient intermolecular hydrogen bonding in the PPII arrangement, and the following relative electronic energy stability ß-ß < ß-PPII ≈ PPII-ß < PPII-PPII has been found. The conformational entropy term proceeds in the reverse direction, thus these changes compensate in a way that leads to small changes in Gibbs free energy. These findings agree with experimental data which report an equilibrium between these conformers modulated by temperature.

Antiviral Compounds to Address Influenza Pandemics: An Update from 2016-2022.

In recent decades, the world has gained experience of the dangerous effects of pandemic events caused by emerging respiratory viruses. In particular, annual epidemics of influenza are responsible for severe illness and deaths. Even if conventional influenza vaccines represent the most effective tool for preventing virus infections, they are not completely effective in patients with severe chronic disease and immunocompromised and new small molecules have emerged to prevent and control the influenza viruses. Thus, the attention of chemists is continuously focused on the synthesis of new antiviral drugs able to interact with the different molecular targets involved in the virus replication cycle. To date, different classes of influenza viruses inhibitors able to target neuraminidase enzyme, hemagglutinin protein, Matrix-2 (M2) protein ion channel, nucleoprotein or RNA-dependent RNA polymerase have been synthesized using several synthetic strategies comprising the chemical modification of currently used drugs. The best results, in terms of inhibitory activity, are in the nanomolar range and have been obtained from the chemical modification of clinically used drugs such as Peramivir, Zanamivir, Oseltamir, Rimantadine, as well as sialylated molecules, and hydroxypyridinone derivatives. The aim of this review is to report, covering the period 2016-2022, the most recent routes related to the synthesis of effective influenza virus inhibitors.

Moving forward through the in silico modeling of multiple sclerosis: Treatment layer implementation and validation.

Multiple sclerosis is an autoimmune inflammatory disease that affects the central nervous system through chronic demyelination and loss of oligodendrocytes. Since the relapsing-remitting form is the most prevalent, relapse-reducing therapies are a primary choice for specialists. Universal Immune System Simulator is an agent-based model that simulates the human immune system dynamics under physiological conditions and during several diseases, including multiple sclerosis. In this work, we extended the UISS-MS disease layer by adding two new treatments, i.e., cladribine and ocrelizumab, to show that UISS-MS can be potentially used to predict the effects of any existing or newly designed treatment against multiple sclerosis. To retrospectively validate UISS-MS with ocrelizumab and cladribine, we extracted the clinical and MRI data from patients included in two clinical trials, thus creating specific cohorts of digital patients for predicting and validating the effects of the considered drugs. The obtained results mirror those of the clinical trials, demonstrating that UISS-MS can correctly simulate the mechanisms of action and outcomes of the treatments. The successful retrospective validation concurred to confirm that UISS-MS can be considered a digital twin solution to be used as a support system to inform clinical decisions and predict disease course and therapeutic response at a single patient level.

Chitosan/POSS Hybrid Hydrogels for Bone Tissue Engineering.

Hybrid hydrogels composed of chitosan (CS) have shown great potential in bone tissue engineering and regeneration. The introduction of polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxanes (POSS) in the biopolymeric matrix has been demonstrated to improve the rheological and biological properties of the hybrid composites. In this work, we have integrated the favourable features of chitosan (CS) and POSS nanoparticles to design new nanocomposites for bone tissue regeneration, focusing our attention on the effect of POSS concentration within the CS matrix (0.5, 1, and 1.5 equivalents in weight of POSS with respect to CS) on the chemical, physical, rheological, and in vitro biological properties of the final composites. The drug release ability of the synthesized hydrogel scaffolds were also investigated using, as the model drug, ketoprofen, that was included in the scaffold during the gelling procedure, showing a more controlled release for the hybrids with respect to CS (86-91% of drug released after two weeks). The results of the in vitro biological tests performed on human fetal osteoblastic cells (hFOB 1.19) culture demonstrated the great biocompatibility of the hybrid materials. The hybrids, at the different POSS concentrations, showed values of cell mortality superimposable with control cells (11.1 vs. 9.8%), thus revealing the CS/POSS hydrogels as possible candidates for bone tissue engineering applications.

Antiviral activity of seed extract from Citrus bergamia towards human retroviruses.

The effects of an extract from Citrus bergamia (BSext) and those of two products purified from the same extract, that is, nomilin and limonin, and reference compounds, towards HTLV-1 have been reported. Moreover, they were also compared with those obtained towards HIV-1. Results showed that the efficacy of both BSext and limonin in inhibiting HTLV-1 as well as HIV-1 expression in infected cells, as evaluated by comparable quantitative assays, was close to that of the effective, reference compounds, respectively. The protective effect of BSext and of the purified products was associated with the inhibition of both HTLV-1 and HIV-1 RT activities in conceptually similar, cell-free assays. The cytotoxicity of the assayed compounds of natural origin was substantially less pronounced than that of the reference compounds, thus showing a favourable selectivity index for the novel BSext product.

Supramolecular recognition of phosphocholine by an enzyme-like cavitand receptor.

The first example of supramolecular recognition of phosphocholine by a cavitand receptor has been reported here. The chemical structure of the receptor has been optimized by DFT calculations. The recognition mechanism is based on a "multi-topic approach", which leads to highly efficient (K value up to 107 M-1), selective and sensitive (ppb level) sensing of phosphocholine. The recognition mechanism proposed here is similar to those exploited by Nature, and paves the way for the realization of new sensors with important applications in medicine and security fields.

Gene Silencing of Transferrin-1 Receptor as a Potential Therapeutic Target for Human Follicular and Anaplastic Thyroid Cancer.

Herein, we assess the gene expression changes activated in thyroid tumors through a computational approach, using the MapReduce algorithm. Through this predictive analysis, we identified the TfR1 gene as a critical mediator of thyroid tumor progression. Then, we investigated the effect of TfR1 gene silencing through small interfering RNA (siRNA) in the expression of extracellular signal-regulated kinase 1/2 (Erk1/2) pathway and c-Myc in human differentiated follicular and undifferentiated anaplastic thyroid cancer. The expression levels of cyclin D1, p53, and p27, proteins involved in cell cycle progression, were also evaluated. The effect of TfR1 gene silencing through siRNA on the apoptotic pathway activation was also tested. Computational prediction and in vitro studies demonstrate that TfR1 plays a key role in thyroid cancer and that its downregulation was able to inhibit the ERK pathway, reducing also c-Myc expression, which blocks the cell cycle and activates the apoptotic pathway. We demonstrate that TfR1 plays a crucial role for a rapid and transient activation of the ERK signaling pathway, which induces a deregulation of genes involved in the aberrant accumulation of intracellular free iron and in drug resistance. We also suggest that TfR1 might represent an important target for thyroid cancer therapy.

Functionalized polyhedral oligosilsesquioxane (POSS) based composites for bone tissue engineering: synthesis, computational and biological studies.

Functionalized polyhedral oligosilsesquioxanes (POSS) containing an isoxazolidine nucleus have been synthesized by microwave assisted 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition of N-methyl-C-alkoxycarbonyl nitrone 1 with POSS containing olefin moieties. The results of cycloaddition processes were rationalized by computational studies at the DFT level. The covalent conjugation of chitosan with the cycloadduct 3a leads to composite material CS-POSS 7 which was gelified using genipin as cross linking agent. The suitability of the system for bone tissue engineering purposes was evaluated by in vitro drug release studies using ketoprofen as a model drug and cytotoxicity assays performed on human fetal osteoblastic cells. The preliminary biological tests showed the lack of cytotoxicity of the hybrid material and suggest its potential role in bone tissue engineering applications.

Novel l-adenosine analogs as cardioprotective agents.

Two l-nucleosides, l-3'-amino-3'-deoxy-N(6)-dimethyladenosine (l-3'-ADMdA) 1, previously synthesized in our laboratory, and the novel l-3'-amino-3'-deoxy-N(6)-methyladenosine-5'-N-methyluronamide (l-3'-AM-MECA) 2 were evaluated in an ischemia/reperfusion model on Langendorff perfused mouse heart. l-3'-ADMdA 1 was found to enhance functional recovery from ischemia (32.2+/-3.7cm H(2)O/s % rate pressure product, compared to 21.3+/-1.4 for the control and 30.7+/-3.4 for adenosine) and increase the time to onset of ischemic contracture (14.5+/-0.9min, compared to 10.5+/-1.0min for the control and 13.6+/-0.6min for adenosine) comparable to adenosine. Consistent with the functional recovery data, decreased infarction area was seen in the case of 1 (19.1+/-8.4, compared to 40.5+/-7.2% for the control and 11.5+/-2.1% for adenosine). In contrast, l-3'-AM-MECA 2 did not show significant functional recovery, increased onset of contracture, nor decreased infarction area compared to control. Unlike adenosine, neither 1 nor 2 induced cardiac standstill in mouse heart.

Polystyrene Nanocomposites Reinforced with Novel Dumbbell-Shaped Phenyl-POSSs: Synthesis and Thermal Characterization.

Two series of novel dumbbell-shaped polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxanes (POSSs), fully functionalized with phenyl groups at the corner of the silicon cages, were used to prepare polystyrene (PS) nanocomposites through the method of in situ polymerization. The percentage of the molecular filler reinforcement was set as 5% w/w of POSS and was checked by 1H-NMR spectroscopy. The obtained nanocomposites were characterized by thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Thermal and morphological properties were evaluated and compared among the nanocomposites obtained using the two different series of dumbbell-shaped POSSs and with the net PS. The thermal parameters for the prepared nanocomposites were very high when compared with those of neat PS, and they evidenced significant differences when an aliphatic or aromatic bridge was used to link the silicon cages. SEM analysis results allow us to hypothesize a justification for the different resistance to thermal degradation showed by the two series of molecular reinforcement.

Pyridine and Pyrimidine Derivatives as Privileged Scaffolds in Biologically Active Agents.

Pyridine and pyrimidine derivatives have received great interest in recent pharmacological research, being effective in the treatment of various malignancies, such as myeloid leukemia, breast cancer and idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. Most of the FDA approved drugs show a pyridine or pyrimidine core bearing different substituents. The aim of this review is to describe the most recent reports in this field, with reference to the newly discovered pyridineor pyrimidine-based drugs, to their synthesis and to the evaluation of the most biologically active derivatives. The corresponding benzo-fused heterocyclic compounds, i.e. quinolines and quinazolines, are also reported.