High-throughput virtual screening and quantum mechanics approach to develop imipramine analogues as leads against trypanothione reductase of leishmania.

Visceral leishmaniasis (VL) has been considered as one of the most fatal form of leishmaniasis which affects 70 countries worldwide. Increased drug resistance in Indian subcontinent urged the need of new antileishmanial compounds with high efficacy and negligible toxicity. Imipramine compounds have shown impressive antileishmanial activity. To find out most potent analogue from imipramine series and explore the inhibitory activity of imipramine, we docked imipramine analogues (n=93,328) against trypanothione reductase in three sequential modes. Furthermore, 98 ligands having better docking score than reference ligand were subjected to ADME and toxicity, binding energy calculation and docking validation. Finally, Molecular dynamic and single point energy was estimated for best two ligands. This study uncovers the inhibitory activity of imipramine against Leishmania parasites.

Synthesis of a quaternary bis derivative of imipramine as a novel compound with potential anti-enuretic effect.

OBJECTIVES: Imipramine has been used for over four decades (early reports in 1960s) for the treatment of nocturnal enuresis, although the reason for its effect is not clear. Imipramine is a tertiary amine, which may act both in the periphery and/or pass through the blood-brain barrier (BBB) in unionized form and exhibit a central effect. Since imipramine has anti-cholinergic properties, some believe it may exert its anti-enuretic effect by affecting peripheral cholinergic receptors, i.e. its anti-enuretic effect may be due to peripheral anti-cholinergic properties, whereas others think it can pass through the BBB and interact with central nervous system (CNS) receptors. If the anti-enuretic effect of imipramine is due to its peripheral anti-cholinergic effects, its entrance into the CNS is unnecessary. Therefore, the synthesis of a form of imipramine that can exhibit peripheral anti-cholinergic effects but does not have CNS adverse effects would have a safer drug profile in this case. On the other hand, if the anti-enuretic effect of imipramine is primarily due to its action on the CNS, a form of imipramine that cannot pass through the BBB has no effect on nocturnal enuresis treatment and thus may help to clarify the mechanism of action of imipramine in nocturnal enuresis treatment. METHODS: This article describes the synthesis and evaluation of the anti-cholinergic effect of a new bis derivative of imipramine, which contains two imipramine units in its structure. KEY FINDINGS: The compound exhibited anti-cholinergic activity comparable with that of imipramine on isolated guinea pig ileum. CONCLUSIONS: Being a quaternary ammonium, this compound is not expected to be able to cross the BBB and thus would cause fewer CNS side effects.

Synthesis and local anesthetic activity of fluoro-substituted imipramine and its analogues.

A series of fluoro-substituted imipramines and its analogues, 6a-6e, were synthesized and evaluated for their in vitro local anesthetic activity. Compound 6b was found to have potency, onset, and duration of action comparable to those of lidocaine (lidocaine hydrochloride, CAS:6108-05-0). Dissociation constants (pK(a)) of these compounds have been determined to be 7.6-7.9.

A unique tertiary amine N-oxide reduction system composed of quinone reductase and heme in rat liver preparations.

The results of this study show the quinone-dependent reduction of tertiary amine N-oxides to the corresponding tertiary amines by rat liver preparations. The reduction of imipramine N-oxide to imipramine mediated by liver mitochondria, microsomes, and cytosol proceeded in the presence of both NAD(P)H and menadione under anaerobic conditions. When menadione was replaced with 1, 4-naphthoquinone or 9,10-anthraquinone, similar results were obtained in the cytosolic reduction. The quinone-dependent reducing activity in liver cytosol was inhibited by dicumarol and carbon monoxide. This result suggested that the activity is caused by DT-diaphorase, a cytosolic quinone reductase, and hemoproteins in liver cytosol. In fact, catalase and hemoglobin showed the ability to reduce imipramine N-oxide when supplemented with DT-diaphorase. The hemoproteins also exhibited the N-oxide reductase activity with reduced menadione, menadiol. The N-oxide reductase activity of the hemoproteins was also exhibited with 1,4-dihydroxynaphthalene, 1,4,9, 10-tetrahydroxyanthracene, or 1,4-dihydroxy-9,10-anthraquinone. Furthermore, hematin revealed a significant N-oxide-reducing activity in the presence of menadiol. The reduction appears to proceed in two steps. The first step is reduction of menadione to menadiol by a quinone reductase with NADPH or NADH. The second step is nonenzymatic reduction of tertiary amine N-oxides to tertiary amines by menadiol, catalyzed by the heme group of hemoproteins. Cyclobenzaprine N-oxide and brucine N-oxide were also transformed similarly to the corresponding amine by the quinone-dependent reducing system.

Quinone-dependent tertiary amine N-oxide reduction in rat blood.

Rat blood exhibited a significant quinone-dependent N-oxide reductase activity towards imipramine N-oxide. The reduction mediated by the blood proceeded in the presence of both NAD(P)H and menadione under anaerobic conditions. When menadione was replaced with 1,4-naphthoquinone or 9,10-phenanthrenequinone, similar results were obtained. The reduction was also mediated by the combination of rat erythrocytes and plasma. The reducing activity was inhibited by dicumarol and carbon monoxide. When boiled plasma was combined with untreated erythrocytes, the N-oxide reducing activity was abolished. In contrast, when boiled erythrocytes were combined with untreated plasma, the activity was unchanged. These results suggest that the activity is caused by the heme of hemoglobin in erythrocytes and quinone reductase in plasma. In fact, erythrocytes and hemoglobin have the ability to reduce the N-oxide when supplemented with DT-diaphorase purified from rat liver in the presence of both NAD(P)H and menadione. Hemoglobin also exhibits N-oxide reductase activity with reduced menadione (menadiol). Furthermore, hematin exhibits a significant reducing activity in the presence of menadiol. The reduction appears to proceed in two steps. The first step is enzymatic reduction of quinones to dihydroquinones by quinone reductase(s) with NADPH or NADH in plasma. The second step is nonenzymatic reduction of imipramine N-oxide to imipramine by the dihydroquinones, catalyzed by the heme group of hemoglobin in erythrocytes. Cyclobenzaprine N-oxide and brucine N-oxide are similarly transformed to the corresponding amines by the above reducing system in blood. These results suggest that blood plays an important role in the reduction of tertiary amine N-oxides to tertiary amines.

Metabolism of drugs in the eye. Menadione-dependent reduction of tertiary amine N-oxide by preparations from bovine ocular tissues.

As described previously, the microsomes and cytosol from bovine ciliary body exhibited a significant reductase activity toward tertiary amine N-oxide such as imipramine N-oxide when supplemented with menadione. In the present study, the menadione-dependent N-oxide reduction was further examined with preparations of bovine ocular tissues. The reduction of imipramine N-oxide occurred much more significantly when the microsomes and cytosols from bovine ciliary body were supplemented with both menadione and NAD(P)H, compared with menadione alone. The cytosolic menadione-dependent reduction, but not the microsomal one, was markedly inhibited by dicumarol, suggesting the involvement of DT-diaphorase in the reaction. Localization of the menadione-dependent N-oxide reductase activity in bovine ocular tissues indicated that the highest activity resided in the ciliary body, followed by retinal pigment epithelium-choroid, iris, retina and cornea. When the cytosol from bovine ciliary body was fractionated with ammonium sulfate, the distribution of the menadione-dependent N-oxide reductase activity in the resultant fractions was parallel, but roughly, to that of DT-diaphorase activity, supporting the assumption that the flavoenzyme was involved in the cytosolic menadione-dependent N-oxide reduction. We proposed a new mechanism for the metabolic reduction of tertiary amine N-oxide in the eye: Menadione is reduced to the corresponding diol by quinone-reducing enzymes and then tertiary amine N-oxide is reduced by the diol to the corresponding amine nonenzymatically.

Metabolism of drugs in the eye. Drug-reducing activity of preparations from bovine ciliary body.

Drug-metabolizing activities, especially the reductase activities towards N-oxide, hydroxamic acid, sulfoxide and nitro compounds were comparatively examined with bovine ciliary body. As described previously, the cytosol from the ocular tissue exhibits the nicotinamide N-oxide reductase activity when supplemented with 2-hydroxypyrimidine, an electron donor of aldehyde oxidase. When the cytosol was fractionated with ammonium sulfate, followed by assays of aldehyde oxidase and nicotinamide N-oxide reductase activities in each fraction, the distribution of aldehyde oxidase activity in the resultant ammonium sulfate fractions was nearly parallel to that of nicotinamide N-oxide reductase activity. Furthermore, reductase activities towards drugs such as sulfoxide, hydroxamic acid and nitro compounds were observed with the cytosol in the presence of 2-hydroxypyrimidine or N1-methylnicotinamide. In general, these reductase activities of the fraction were markedly inhibited by menadione, an inhibitor of aldehyde oxidase. These results suggest that aldehyde oxidase present in ciliary body plays an important role in the reduction of a variety of xenobiotics in mammalian eyes. However, in the case of imipramine N-oxide, its reduction in the ocular tissue appears to be more readily catalyzed by a menadione-linked enzyme different from aldehyde oxidase.

Labeling in vivo of serotonin uptake sites in rat brain after administration of [3H]cyanoimipramine.

The properties of sites in rat brain labeled in vivo after administration of [3H]cyanoimipramine ([3H]CN-IMI) have been studied. The radioactivity in hypothalamus and cortex 20 min to 2 hr after [3H]CN-IMI administration was reduced in rats pretreated with chlorimipramine (10 mg/kg) 5 min before [3H]CN-IMI. No effect of chlorimipramine pretreatment was seen in the cerebellum; levels of radioactivity in this tissue were subtracted from total levels in hypothalamus and cortex to define specific binding. This represented approximately 50 and 30% of total binding in hypothalamus and cortex, respectively. Specific binding in hypothalamus and cortex was reduced by a number of drugs which are potent blockers of serotonin uptake and the binding was inhibited in a stereoselective manner by the stereoisomers of norzimelidine. In contrast, pretreatment with drugs which are weak inhibitors of serotonin uptake had no effect on specific binding. Experiments using increasing doses of [3H]CN-IMI showed that the binding in vivo was saturable. Lesioning rats with the serotonin neurotoxin 5,7-dihydroxytryptamine resulted in an 80% decrease in the specific binding in hypothalamus and a 35% decrease in cortex. The potencies of drugs to inhibit the specific binding of [3H]CN-IMI in vivo were highly correlated with their previously published potencies for inhibiting serotonin uptake in human blood platelets in vitro and for preventing the serotonin depletion induced by 4-methyl-alpha-ethyl-metatyramine in vivo. These results indicate that [3H]CN-IMI can be given to rats to provide a measure of serotonin uptake sites in the central nervous system in vivo.