Iodine-mediated one-pot intramolecular decarboxylation domino reaction for accessing functionalised 2-(1,3,4-oxadiazol-2-yl)anilines with carbonic anhydrase inhibitory action.

A practical and transition metal-free one-pot domino synthesis of diversified (1,3,4-oxadiazol-2-yl)anilines has been developed employing isatins and hydrazides as the starting materials, in the presence of molecular iodine. The prominent feature of this domino process involves consecutive condensation, hydrolytic ring cleavage, and an intramolecular decarboxylation, in a one-pot process that leads to the oxidative formation of a C-O bond. Fluorescence properties of some of the representative molecules obtained in this way were studied. The synthesised 2-(1,3,4-oxadiazolo-2-yl)aniline-benzene sulphonamides (8a-o) were screened for their carbonic anhydrase (CA, EC 4.2.1.1) inhibitory activity. Most of the compounds exhibited low micromolar to nanomolar activity against human (h) isoforms hCA I, hCA II, hCA IV, and XII, with some compounds displaying selective CA inhibitory activity towards hCA II with KIs of 6.4-17.6 nM.

Synthesis and biological evaluation of curcumin inspired imidazo[1,2-a]pyridine analogues as tubulin polymerization inhibitors.

With an aim to develop new curcumin inspired analogues as potent anticancer agents, we synthesized a series of (1E,4E)-1-phenyl-5-(3-phenylimidazo[1,2-a]pyridin-2-yl)penta-1,4-dien-3-ones (12a-t) as tubulin polymerization inhibitors. An initial screening was carried out to evaluate their cytotoxic potential on a panel of six cancer cell lines namely, cervical (HeLa), gastric (HGC-27), lung (NCI-H460), prostate (DU-145 and PC-3) and breast (4T1), using MTT assay. Among the compounds tested, compounds 12e, 12r and 12t showed potent growth inhibition and 12t {(1E,4E)-1-(3-(3,4-difluorophenyl)imidazo[1,2-a]pyridin-2-yl)-5-(2,4,6-trimethoxyphenyl)penta-1,4-dien-3-one} being the most active member of the series inhibited the growth of all the tested cell lines with IC50 values varying from 1.7 - 2.97 µM. Moreover, 12t showed promising cytotoxicity on PC-3, HGC-27 and HeLa cell lines with IC50 values of 2.11 ± 0.27 µM, 2.21 ± 0.25 µM and 2.53 ± 0.01 µM respectively. The results from aqueous solubility test showed that compounds 12e and 12t have 1.7 and 2.8 times more aqueous solubility than curcumin. Interestingly, the most active compound 12t was found to be nearly 2 times more selective on PC-3 cells as well as safe on normal human prostate (RWPE-1) cells. In addition, compound 12t efficiently inhibited tubulin polymerization with IC50 value of 8.44 ± 0.13 µM and molecular modelling studies disclosed that 12t binds at the colchicine binding site of the tubulin. Cell cycle analysis revealed that 12t arrests PC-3 cells in G2/M phase in a dose dependant manner. Further, treatment of PC-3 cells with 12t showed typical apoptotic morphology, also led to the impairment of mitochondrial membrane potential (DΨm) and increased levels of reactive oxygen species (ROS). Altogether, the results from acridine orange/ethidium bromide (AO-EB) and DAPI staining studies, annexin V-FITC/propidium iodide staining assay, analysis of mitochondrial membrane potential (DΨm) and reactive oxygen species (ROS) levels undoubtedly demonstrated the induction of apoptosis in PC-3 cells by compound 12t.

Discovery of curcumin inspired sulfonamide derivatives as a new class of carbonic anhydrase isoforms I, II, IX, and XII inhibitors.

A series of curcumin inspired sulfonamide derivatives was prepared from various chalcones and 4-sulfamoyl benzaldehyde via Claisen-Schmidt condensation. All new compounds were assayed as inhibitors of four human isoforms of the metalloenzyme carbonic anhydrase (hCA, EC 4.2.1.1) isoforms hCA I, II, IX and XII. Interesting inhibitory activities were observed against all these isoforms. hCA I, an isoform involved in several eye diseases was inhibited moderately with KIs in the range of 191.8-904.2 nM, hCA II, an antiglaucoma drug target was highly inhibited by the new sulfonamides, with KIs in the range of 0.75-8.8 nM. hCA IX, a tumor-associated isoform involved in cancer progression and metastatic spread was potently inhibited by the new sulfonamides, with KIs in the range of 2.3-87.3 nM, whereas hCA XII, and antiglaucoma and anticancer drug target, was inhibited with KIs in the range of 6.1-71.8 nM. It is noteworthy that one of the new compounds, 5d, was found to be almost 9 times more selective against hCA II (KI = 0.89 nM) over hCA IX and hCA XII, whereas 5e was 3 and 70 times more selective against hCA II (KI = 0.75 nM) over hCA IX and hCA XII, respectively.

Development of sulfonamides incorporating phenylacrylamido functionalities as carbonic anhydrase isoforms I, II, IX and XII inhibitors.

A series of novel sulfonamides incorporating phenylacrylamido functionalities were synthesized and investigated for the inhibition of the metalloenzyme carbonic anhydrase (CA, EC 4.2.1.1). The physiologically and pharmacologically relevant human (h) isoforms hCA I and II (cytosolic isozymes), as well as the transmembrane tumor-associated hCA IX and XII were included in the study. These compounds showed low nanomolar or sub-nanomolar inhibition constants against hCA II (KIs in the range of 0.50-50.5nM), hCA IX (KIs of 1.8-228.5nM), and hCA XII (KIs of 3.5-96.2nM) being less effective as inhibitors of the off target isoform hCA I. A detailed structure-activity relationship study demonstrates that the nature and position of substituents present on the aromatic part of the scaffold strongly influence the inhibition of CA isoforms. As hCA II, IX and XII are involved in pathologies such as glaucoma and hypoxic, and metastatic tumors, compounds of the type reported in this work may be useful preclinical candidates.

Vanadium-Catalyzed Oxidative C(CO)-C(CO) Bond Cleavage for C-N Bond Formation: One-Pot Domino Transformation of 1,2-Diketones and Amidines into Imides and Amides.

A novel vanadium-catalyzed one-pot domino reaction of 1,2-diketones with amidines has been identified that enables their transformation into imides and amides. The reaction proceeds by dual acylation of amidines via oxidative C(CO)-C(CO) bond cleavage of 1,2-diketones to afford N,N'-diaroyl-N-arylbenzamidine intermediates. In the reaction, these intermediates are easily hydrolyzed into imides and amides through vanadium catalysis. This method provides a practical, simple, and mild synthetic approach to access a variety of imides as well as amides in high yields. Moreover, one-step construction of imide and amide bonds with a long-chain alkyl group is an attractive feature of this protocol.

Discovery of 4-sulfamoyl-phenyl-ß-lactams as a new class of potent carbonic anhydrase isoforms I, II, IV and VII inhibitors: The first example of subnanomolar CA IV inhibitors.

A series of benzenesulfonamides incorporating 1,3,4-trisubstituted-ß-lactam moieties was prepared from sulfanilamide Schiff bases and in situ obtained ketenes, by using the Staudinger cycloaddition reaction. The new compounds were assayed as inhibitors of four human isoforms of the metalloenzyme carbonic anhydrase (hCA, EC 4.2.1.1) involved in various physiological/pathological conditions, hCA I, II, IV and VII. Excellent inhibitory activity was observed against all these isoforms, as follows: hCA I, involved in some eye diseases was inhibited with KIs in the range of 7.3-917nM; hCA II, an antiglaucoma drug target, with KIs in the range of 0.76-163nM. hCA IV, an isoform involved in several pathological conditions such as glaucoma, retinitis pigmentosa and edema was potently inhibited by the lactam-sulfonamides, with KIs in the range of 0.53-51.0nM, whereas hCA VII, a recently validated anti-neuropathic pain target was the most inhibited isoform by these derivatives, with KIs in the range of 0.68-9.1nM. The structure-activity relationship for inhibiting these CAs with the new lactam-sulfonamides is discussed in detail.