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BACKGROUND: Modelling and simulation are being increasingly utilized to support the discovery and development of new anti-malarial drugs. These approaches require reliable in vitro data for physicochemical properties, permeability, binding, intrinsic clearance and cytochrome P450 inhibition. This work was conducted to generate an in vitro data toolbox using standardized methods for a set of 45 anti-malarial drugs and to assess changes in physicochemical properties in relation to changing target product and candidate profiles. METHODS: Ionization constants were determined by potentiometric titration and partition coefficients were measured using a shake-flask method. Solubility was assessed in biorelevant media and permeability coefficients and efflux ratios were determined using Caco-2 cell monolayers. Binding to plasma and media proteins was measured using either ultracentrifugation or rapid equilibrium dialysis. Metabolic stability and cytochrome P450 inhibition were assessed using human liver microsomes. Sample analysis was conducted by LC-MS/MS. RESULTS: Both solubility and fraction unbound decreased, and permeability and unbound intrinsic clearance increased, with increasing Log D7.4. In general, development compounds were somewhat more lipophilic than legacy drugs. For many compounds, permeability and protein binding were challenging to assess and both required the use of experimental conditions that minimized the impact of non-specific binding. Intrinsic clearance in human liver microsomes was varied across the data set and several compounds exhibited no measurable substrate loss under the conditions used. Inhibition of cytochrome P450 enzymes was minimal for most compounds. CONCLUSIONS: This is the first data set to describe in vitro properties for 45 legacy and development anti-malarial drugs. The studies identified several practical methodological issues common to many of the more lipophilic compounds and highlighted areas which require more work to customize experimental conditions for compounds being designed to meet the new target product profiles. The dataset will be a valuable tool for malaria researchers aiming to develop PBPK models for the prediction of human PK properties and/or drug-drug interactions. Furthermore, generation of this comprehensive data set within a single laboratory allows direct comparison of properties across a large dataset and evaluation of changing property trends that have occurred over time with changing target product and candidate profiles.
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Antimaláricos/metabolismo , Antimaláricos/farmacologia , Desenvolvimento de Medicamentos , Descoberta de Drogas , Antimaláricos/sangue , Antimaláricos/normas , Células CACO-2 , Cromatografia Líquida , Sistema Enzimático do Citocromo P-450/metabolismo , Interações Medicamentosas , Humanos , Cinética , Microssomos Hepáticos , Permeabilidade , Ligação Proteica , Solubilidade , Espectrometria de Massas em TandemRESUMO
Malaria remains a global health concern as drug resistance threatens treatment programs. We identified a piperidine carboxamide (SW042) with anti-malarial activity by phenotypic screening. Selection of SW042-resistant Plasmodium falciparum (Pf) parasites revealed point mutations in the Pf_proteasome ß5 active-site (Pfß5). A potent analog (SW584) showed efficacy in a mouse model of human malaria after oral dosing. SW584 had a low propensity to generate resistance (minimum inoculum for resistance [MIR] >109) and was synergistic with dihydroartemisinin. Pf_proteasome purification was facilitated by His8-tag introduction onto ß7. Inhibition of Pfß5 correlated with parasite killing, without inhibiting human proteasome isoforms or showing cytotoxicity. The Pf_proteasome_SW584 cryoelectron microscopy (cryo-EM) structure showed that SW584 bound non-covalently distal from the catalytic threonine, in an unexplored pocket at the ß5/ß6/ß3 subunit interface that has species differences between Pf and human proteasomes. Identification of a reversible, species selective, orally active series with low resistance propensity provides a path for drugging this essential target.
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Antimaláricos , Piperidinas , Plasmodium falciparum , Inibidores de Proteassoma , Piperidinas/química , Piperidinas/farmacologia , Plasmodium falciparum/efeitos dos fármacos , Plasmodium falciparum/enzimologia , Animais , Antimaláricos/farmacologia , Antimaláricos/química , Humanos , Camundongos , Inibidores de Proteassoma/farmacologia , Inibidores de Proteassoma/química , Inibidores de Proteassoma/síntese química , Administração Oral , Complexo de Endopeptidases do Proteassoma/metabolismo , Malária/tratamento farmacológico , Malária/parasitologia , Amidas/química , Amidas/farmacologia , Amidas/síntese química , Malária Falciparum/tratamento farmacológico , Feminino , Estrutura MolecularRESUMO
Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is widely acknowledged as one of the most serious public health threats facing the world, yet the private sector finds it challenging to generate much-needed medicines. As an alternative discovery approach, a small array of diarylimidazoles was screened against the ESKAPE pathogens, and the results were made publicly available through the Open Source Antibiotics (OSA) consortium (https://github.com/opensourceantibiotics). Of the 18 compounds tested (at 32 µg/mL), 15 showed >90% growth inhibition activity against methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) alone. In the subsequent hit-to-lead optimization of this chemotype, 147 new heterocyclic compounds containing the diarylimidazole and other core motifs were synthesized and tested against MRSA, and their structure-activity relationships were identified. While potent, these compounds have moderate to high intrinsic clearance and some associated toxicity. The best overall balance of parameters was found with OSA_975, a compound with good potency, good solubility, and reduced intrinsic clearance in rat hepatocytes. We have progressed toward the knowledge of the molecular target of these phenotypically active compounds, with proteomic techniques suggesting TGFBR1 is potentially involved in the mechanism of action. Further development of these compounds toward antimicrobial medicines is available to anyone under the licensing terms of the project.
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Antibacterianos , Staphylococcus aureus Resistente à Meticilina , Ratos , Animais , Antibacterianos/farmacologia , Proteômica , Testes de Sensibilidade Microbiana , Relação Estrutura-AtividadeRESUMO
New drugs for visceral leishmaniasis that are safe, low cost, and adapted to the field are urgently required. Despite concerted efforts over the last several years, the number of new chemical entities that are suitable for clinical development for the treatment of Leishmania remains low. Here, we describe the discovery and preclinical development of DNDI-6174, an inhibitor of Leishmania cytochrome bc1 complex activity that originated from a phenotypically identified pyrrolopyrimidine series. This compound fulfills all target candidate profile criteria required for progression into preclinical development. In addition to good metabolic stability and pharmacokinetic properties, DNDI-6174 demonstrates potent in vitro activity against a variety of Leishmania species and can reduce parasite burden in animal models of infection, with the potential to approach sterile cure. No major flags were identified in preliminary safety studies, including an exploratory 14-day toxicology study in the rat. DNDI-6174 is a cytochrome bc1 complex inhibitor with acceptable development properties to enter preclinical development for visceral leishmaniasis.
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Leishmaniose Visceral , Leishmaniose , Ratos , Animais , Leishmaniose Visceral/tratamento farmacológico , Leishmaniose Visceral/parasitologia , Modelos Animais de DoençasRESUMO
The COVID-19 pandemic continues unabated, emphasizing the need for additional antiviral treatment options to prevent hospitalization and death of patients infected with SARS-CoV-2. The papain-like protease (PLpro) domain is part of the SARS-CoV-2 non-structural protein (nsp)-3, and represents an essential protease and validated drug target for preventing viral replication. PLpro moonlights as a deubiquitinating (DUB) and deISGylating enzyme, enabling adaptation of a DUB high throughput (HTS) screen to identify PLpro inhibitors. Drug repurposing has been a major focus through the COVID-19 pandemic as it may provide a fast and efficient route for identifying clinic-ready, safe-in-human antivirals. We here report our effort to identify PLpro inhibitors by screening the ReFRAME library of 11,804 compounds, showing that none inhibit PLpro with any reasonable activity or specificity to justify further progression towards the clinic. We also report our latest efforts to improve piperidine-scaffold inhibitors, 5c and 3k, originally developed for SARS-CoV PLpro. We report molecular details of binding and selectivity, as well as in vitro absorption, distribution, metabolism and excretion (ADME) studies of this scaffold. A co-crystal structure of SARS-CoV-2 PLpro bound to inhibitor 3k guides medicinal chemistry efforts to improve binding and ADME characteristics. We arrive at compounds with improved and favorable solubility and stability characteristics that are tested for inhibiting viral replication. Whilst still requiring significant improvement, our optimized small molecule inhibitors of PLpro display decent antiviral activity in an in vitro SARS-CoV-2 infection model, justifying further optimization.
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Novel 3,3'-disubstituted-5,5'-bi(1,2,4-triazine) compounds with potent in vitro activity against Plasmodium falciparum parasites were recently discovered. To improve the pharmacokinetic properties of the triazine derivatives, a new structure-activity relationship (SAR) investigation was initiated with a focus on enhancing the metabolic stability of lead compounds. These efforts led to the identification of second-generation highly potent antimalarial bis-triazines, exemplified by triazine 23, which exhibited significantly improved in vitro metabolic stability (8 and 42 µL/min/mg protein in human and mouse liver microsomes). The disubstituted triazine dimer 23 was also observed to suppress parasitemia in the Peters 4-day test with a mean ED50 value of 1.85 mg/kg/day and exhibited a fast-killing profile, revealing a new class of orally available antimalarial compounds of considerable interest.
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Antimaláricos/uso terapêutico , Malária/tratamento farmacológico , Triazinas/uso terapêutico , Animais , Antimaláricos/síntese química , Antimaláricos/farmacocinética , Células CACO-2 , Feminino , Humanos , Masculino , Camundongos Endogâmicos NOD , Camundongos SCID , Microssomos Hepáticos/efeitos dos fármacos , Estrutura Molecular , Testes de Sensibilidade Parasitária , Plasmodium berghei/efeitos dos fármacos , Plasmodium falciparum/efeitos dos fármacos , Ratos Sprague-Dawley , Relação Estrutura-Atividade , Triazinas/síntese química , Triazinas/farmacocinéticaRESUMO
INTRODUCTION: Methods for assessing the quality of herbal medicine preparations have advanced significantly in recent years in conjunction with increases in herbal medicine use and reports of adulteration and contamination. OBJECTIVE: This study examined the quality of analgesic and anti-inflammatory herbal medicine preparations available on the Australian market by detecting the presence of listed ingredients, adulterants and contaminants. METHODS: Forty-nine analgesic and anti-inflammatory herbal medicine preparations were randomly sourced from Australian capital cities. They were audited using a dual approach of liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS) combined with next-generation DNA sequencing. Once screened, a comparison of listed ingredients with verified ingredients was conducted to determine the accuracy of labelling, and the extent of adulteration and contamination. RESULTS: Twenty-six of 49 (53%) herbal medicines were adulterated or contaminated with undeclared ingredients. LC-MS revealed the presence of pharmaceutical adulterants including atropine and ephedrine. DNA sequencing uncovered concerning levels of herbal substitution, adulteration and contamination, including the use of fillers (alfalfa, wheat and soy), as well as pharmacologically relevant species (Centella asiatica, Panax ginseng, Bupleurum and Passiflora). Pig/boar and bird DNA was found in some preparations, inferring substandard manufacturing practices. Of the 26 contaminated samples, 19 (73%) were manufactured in Australia, and 7 (27%) were imported from other countries (6 from China, 1 from New Zealand). In 23 of 49 (47%) herbal medicine samples, no biological ingredients were detected at all. These were predominantly pain and anti-inflammatory preparations such as glucosamine and eicosapentaenoic and docosahexaenoic acids found in krill and fish oils, so DNA would not be expected to survive the manufacturing process. CONCLUSION: The high level of contamination and substitution of herbal medicine preparations sourced from Australian dispensaries supports the need for more stringent pharmacovigilance measures in Australia and abroad.
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Analgésicos/análise , Anti-Inflamatórios/análise , Sequenciamento de Nucleotídeos em Larga Escala/métodos , Preparações de Plantas/análise , Austrália , China , Cromatografia Líquida , DNA de Plantas/análise , Contaminação de Medicamentos , Espectrometria de Massas , Nova Zelândia , Plantas , Análise de Sequência de DNARESUMO
Malaria puts at risk nearly half the world's population and causes high mortality in sub-Saharan Africa, while drug resistance threatens current therapies. The pyrimidine biosynthetic enzyme dihydroorotate dehydrogenase (DHODH) is a validated target for malaria treatment based on our finding that triazolopyrimidine DSM265 (1) showed efficacy in clinical studies. Herein, we describe optimization of a pyrrole-based series identified using a target-based DHODH screen. Compounds with nanomolar potency versus Plasmodium DHODH and Plasmodium parasites were identified with good pharmacological properties. X-ray studies showed that the pyrroles bind an alternative enzyme conformation from 1 leading to improved species selectivity versus mammalian enzymes and equivalent activity on Plasmodium falciparum and Plasmodium vivax DHODH. The best lead DSM502 (37) showed in vivo efficacy at similar levels of blood exposure to 1, although metabolic stability was reduced. Overall, the pyrrole-based DHODH inhibitors provide an attractive alternative scaffold for the development of new antimalarial compounds.
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Antimaláricos/uso terapêutico , Inibidores Enzimáticos/uso terapêutico , Malária Falciparum/tratamento farmacológico , Oxirredutases atuantes sobre Doadores de Grupo CH-CH/antagonistas & inibidores , Pirróis/uso terapêutico , Animais , Antimaláricos/síntese química , Antimaláricos/metabolismo , Antimaláricos/farmacocinética , Linhagem Celular Tumoral , Cristalografia por Raios X , Di-Hidro-Orotato Desidrogenase , Cães , Inibidores Enzimáticos/síntese química , Inibidores Enzimáticos/metabolismo , Inibidores Enzimáticos/farmacocinética , Feminino , Humanos , Masculino , Camundongos SCID , Microssomos Hepáticos/metabolismo , Estrutura Molecular , Oxirredutases atuantes sobre Doadores de Grupo CH-CH/metabolismo , Testes de Sensibilidade Parasitária , Plasmodium falciparum/efeitos dos fármacos , Plasmodium falciparum/enzimologia , Plasmodium vivax/efeitos dos fármacos , Plasmodium vivax/enzimologia , Ligação Proteica , Pirróis/síntese química , Pirróis/metabolismo , Pirróis/farmacocinética , Ratos , Relação Estrutura-AtividadeRESUMO
Global consumption of complementary and alternative medicines, including herbal medicines, has increased substantially, and recent reports of adulteration demonstrate the need for high throughput and extensive pharmacovigilance to ensure product safety and quality. Three different standard reference materials and five previously analyzed herbal medicines have been used as a proof of concept for the application of adulteration/contamination screening using a Direct Sample Analysis (DSA) ion source with TOF MS on the Perkin Elmer AxION 2 TOF. This technique offers the advantages of minimum sample preparation, rapid analysis, and mass accuracies of 5 ppm. The DSA TOF analysis correlates well with the previous analysis on the initial sample set (which found undeclared herbal ingredients), with the added advantage of detecting previously untargeted compounds, including species-specific flavonoids and alkaloids. The rapid analysis using the DSA-TOF facilitates screening for hundreds of compounds in minutes with minimal sample preparation, generating a comprehensive profile for each sample. Graphical Abstract.
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Contaminação de Medicamentos , Espectrometria de Massas/métodos , Preparações de Plantas/análise , Camellia sinensis/química , Cápsulas/análise , Terapias Complementares , Ginkgo biloba/química , Espectrometria de Massas/instrumentação , Espectrometria de Massas/normas , Padrões de Referência , Comprimidos/análise , Chá/química , Vitaminas/análiseRESUMO
Use of herbal medicines and supplements by consumers to prevent or treat disease, particularly chronic conditions continues to grow, leading to increased awareness of the minimal regulation standards in many countries. Fraudulent, adulterated and contaminated herbal and traditional medicines and dietary supplements are a risk to consumer health, with adverse effects and events including overdose, drug-herb interactions and hospitalisation. The scope of the risk has been difficult to determine, prompting calls for new approaches, such as the combination of DNA metabarcoding and mass spectrometry used in this study. Here we show that nearly 50% of products tested had contamination issues, in terms of DNA, chemical composition or both. Two samples were clear cases of pharmaceutical adulteration, including a combination of paracetamol and chlorpheniramine in one product and trace amounts of buclizine, a drug no longer in use in Australia, in another. Other issues include the undeclared presence of stimulants such as caffeine, synephrine or ephedrine. DNA data highlighted potential allergy concerns (nuts, wheat), presence of potential toxins (Neem oil) and animal ingredients (reindeer, frog, shrew), and possible substitution of bird cartilage in place of shark. Only 21% of the tested products were able to have at least one ingredient corroborated by DNA sequencing. This study demonstrates that, despite current monitoring approaches, contaminated and adulterated products are still reaching the consumer. We suggest that a better solution is stronger pre-market evaluation, using techniques such as that outlined in this study.
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Contaminação de Medicamentos/prevenção & controle , Compostos Fitoquímicos/análise , Fitoterapia/normas , Controle de Qualidade , Acetaminofen/análise , Clorfeniramina/análise , Suplementos Nutricionais/análise , Suplementos Nutricionais/normas , Humanos , Espectrometria de Massas/métodos , Tipagem Molecular/métodos , Compostos Fitoquímicos/química , Compostos Fitoquímicos/normas , Fitoterapia/métodos , Análise de Sequência de DNARESUMO
Herbal medicines are growing in popularity, use and commercial value; however, there remain problems with the quality and consequently safety of these products. Adulterated, contaminated and fraudulent products are often found on the market, a risk compounded by the fact that these products are available to consumers with little or no medical advice. Current regulations and quality control methods are lacking in their ability to combat these serious problems. Metabolomics is a biochemical profiling tool that may help address these issues if applied to quality control of both raw ingredients and final products. Using the example of the popular herbal medicine, ginseng, this essay offers an overview of the potential use of metabolomics for quality control in herbal medicines and also highlights where more research is needed.
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Medicina Herbária , Metabolômica/métodos , Panax/metabolismo , Farmacovigilância , HumanosRESUMO
Globally, there has been an increase in the use of herbal remedies including traditional Chinese medicine (TCM). There is a perception that products are natural, safe and effectively regulated, however, regulatory agencies are hampered by a lack of a toolkit to audit ingredient lists, adulterants and constituent active compounds. Here, for the first time, a multidisciplinary approach to assessing the molecular content of 26 TCMs is described. Next generation DNA sequencing is combined with toxicological and heavy metal screening by separation techniques and mass spectrometry (MS) to provide a comprehensive audit. Genetic analysis revealed that 50% of samples contained DNA of undeclared plant or animal taxa, including an endangered species of Panthera (snow leopard). In 50% of the TCMs, an undeclared pharmaceutical agent was detected including warfarin, dexamethasone, diclofenac, cyproheptadine and paracetamol. Mass spectrometry revealed heavy metals including arsenic, lead and cadmium, one with a level of arsenic >10 times the acceptable limit. The study showed 92% of the TCMs examined were found to have some form of contamination and/or substitution. This study demonstrates that a combination of molecular methodologies can provide an effective means by which to audit complementary and alternative medicines.