Discovery of indolylpiperazinylpyrimidines with dual-target profiles at adenosine A2A and dopamine D2 receptors for Parkinson's disease treatment.

Parkinson's disease (PD) is a neurodegenerative disorder characterized by progressive loss of dopaminergic neurons in the substantia nigra of the human brain, leading to depletion of dopamine production. Dopamine replacement therapy remains the mainstay for attenuation of PD symptoms. Nonetheless, the potential benefit of current pharmacotherapies is mostly limited by adverse side effects, such as drug-induced dyskinesia, motor fluctuations and psychosis. Non-dopaminergic receptors, such as human A2A adenosine receptors, have emerged as important therapeutic targets in potentiating therapeutic effects and reducing the unwanted side effects. In this study, new chemical entities targeting both human A2A adenosine receptor and dopamine D2 receptor were designed and evaluated. Two computational methods, namely support vector machine (SVM) models and Tanimoto similarity-based clustering analysis, were integrated for the identification of compounds containing indole-piperazine-pyrimidine (IPP) scaffold. Subsequent synthesis and testing resulted in compounds 5 and 6, which acted as human A2A adenosine receptor binders in the radioligand competition assay (Ki = 8.7-11.2 µM) as well as human dopamine D2 receptor binders in the artificial cell membrane assay (EC50 = 22.5-40.2 µM). Moreover, compound 5 showed improvement in movement and mitigation of the loss of dopaminergic neurons in Drosophila models of PD. Furthermore, in vitro toxicity studies on compounds 5 and 6 did not reveal any mutagenicity (up to 100 µM), hepatotoxicity (up to 30 µM) or cardiotoxicity (up to 30 µM).

Mahuannin B an adenylate cyclase inhibitor attenuates hyperhidrosis via suppressing ß2-adrenoceptor/cAMP signaling pathway.

BACKGROUND: Based on the traditional application of traditional Chinese Medicines (TCMs), Ephedra Herba (EH) is used to cure cold fever by inducing sweating, whereas Ephedra Radix (ER) is used to treat hyperhidrosis. Although they come from the same plant, Ephedra sinica Stapf, but have play opposing roles in clinical applications. EH is known to contain ephedrine alkaloids, which is the driver of the physiological changes in sweating, heart rate and blood pressure. However, the active pharmacological ingredients (APIs) of ER and the mechanisms by which it restricts sweating remain unknown. PURPOSE: The current work aims to discover the hidroschesis APIs from ER, as well as to establish its action mechanism. METHODS: UPLC-Q/TOF-MS, PCA, and heat map were utilized for identifying the differences between EH and ER. HPLC integrated with a ß2-adrenoceptor (ß2-AR) activity luciferase reporter assay system was used to screen active inhibitors; molecular docking and a series of biological assays centered on ß2-AR-related signaling pathways were evaluated to understand the roles of APIs. RESULTS: The opposite effect on sweating of EH and ER can be attributed to the APIs of amphetamine-type alkaloids and flavonoid derivatives. Mahuannin B is an effective anti-hydrotic agent, inhibiting the production of cAMP via suppression of adenylate cyclase (AC) activity. CONCLUSION: The effects of EH and ER on sweat and ß2-AR-related signaling pathway are opposite due to different alkaloids and flavonoids of APIs in EH and ER. The present work not only sheds light on the hidroschesis action of mahuannin B, but also presents a potential target of AC in the treatment of hyperhidrosis.