Lactic Acid Bacteria-Derived Postbiotics as Adjunctive Agents in Breast Cancer Treatment to Boost the Antineoplastic Effect of a Conventional Therapeutic Comprising Tamoxifen and a New Drug Candidate: An Aziridine-Hydrazide Hydrazone Derivative.

Breast cancer is associated with high mortality and morbidity rates. As about 20-30% of patients exhibiting ER-positive phenotype are resistant to hormonal treatment with the standard drug tamoxifen, finding new therapies is a necessity. Postbiotics, metabolites, and macromolecules isolated from probiotic bacteria cultures have been proven to have sufficient bioactivity to exert prohealth and anticancer effects, making them viable adjunctive agents for the treatment of various neoplasms, including breast cancer. In the current study, postbiotics derived from L. plantarum and L. rhamnosus cultures were assessed on an in vitro breast cancer model as potential adjunctive agents to therapy utilizing tamoxifen and a candidate aziridine-hydrazide hydrazone derivative drug. Cell viability and cell death processes, including apoptosis, were analyzed for neoplastic MCF-7 cells treated with postbiotics and synthetic compounds. Cell cycle progression and proliferation were analyzed by PI-based flow cytometry and Ki-67 immunostaining. Postbiotics decreased viability and triggered apoptosis in MCF-7, modestly affecting the cell cycle and showing a lack of negative impact on normal cell viability. Moreover, they enhanced the cytotoxic effect of tamoxifen and the new candidate drug toward MCF-7, accelerating apoptosis and the inhibition of proliferation. This illustrates postbiotics' potential as natural adjunctive agents supporting anticancer therapy based on synthetic drugs.

A Study on the Biological Activity of Optically Pure Aziridine Phosphines and Phosphine Oxides.

A series of optically pure aziridine phosphines and their corresponding phosphine oxides were synthesized through established chemical methodologies. The compounds were systematically investigated for their biological properties. Notably, all synthesized compounds demonstrated moderate antibacterial activity only against the reference strain of Staphylococcus aureus. However, compounds 5 and 7 exhibited noteworthy cell viability inhibition of human cervical epithelioid carcinoma HeLa cells and endometrial adenocarcinoma Ishikawa cells. Further studies of these compounds revealed additional biological effects, including disruption of the cell membrane in high concentrations, cell cycle arrest in the S phase, and the induction of reactive oxygen species (ROS). Comparative analysis of the two classes of chiral organophosphorus derivatives of aziridines indicated that chiral phosphine oxides displayed significantly higher biological activity. Consequently, these findings suggest that chiral phosphine oxides may be potential candidates for the development of anticancer drugs. In light of the significant interest in preparations whose structure is based on a three-membered aziridine ring in terms of potential anticancer therapy, this research fits into the current research trend and should constitute a valuable addition to the current state of knowledge and the existing library of aziridine derivatives with anticancer properties.

Autophagy Inhibition with Chloroquine Increased Pro-Apoptotic Potential of New Aziridine-Hydrazide Hydrazone Derivatives against Glioblastoma Cells.

Tumor therapy escape due to undesired side effects induced by treatment, such as prosurvival autophagy or cellular senescence, is one of the key mechanisms of resistance that eventually leads to tumor dormancy and recurrence. Glioblastoma is the most frequent and practically incurable neoplasm of the central nervous system; thus, new treatment modalities have been investigated to find a solution more effective than the currently applied standards based on temozolomide. The present study examined the newly synthesized compounds of aziridine-hydrazide hydrazone derivatives to determine their antineoplastic potential against glioblastoma cells in vitro. Although the output of our investigation clearly demonstrates their proapoptotic activity, the cytotoxic effect appeared to be blocked by treatment-induced autophagy, the phenomenon also detected in the case of temozolomide action. The addition of an autophagy inhibitor, chloroquine, resulted in a significant increase in apoptosis triggered by the tested compounds, as well as temozolomide. The new aziridine-hydrazide hydrazone derivatives, which present cytotoxic potential against glioblastoma cells comparable to or even higher than that of temozolomide, show promising results and, thus, should be further investigated as antineoplastic agents. Moreover, our findings suggest that the combination of an apoptosis inducer with an autophagy inhibitor could optimize chemotherapeutic efficiency, and the addition of an autophagy inhibitor should be considered as an optional adjunctive therapy minimizing the risk of tumor escape from treatment.

Highly enantioselective asymmetric direct aldol reaction promoted by aziridine amides constructed on chiral terpene scaffold.

Optically pure, diastereomeric aziridine amides built on the chiral skeletons of camphor, fenchone, and menthone have proven to be highly efficient ligands for enantioselective asymmetric direct aldol reaction in the presence of water and zinc triflate. Desired products were formed in moderate to high chemical yields (up to 95%) and with enantiomeric excess up to 99%. The influence of the stereogenic centers located at the aziridine subunit on the stereochemical course of the reaction is discussed.

Synthesis and Evaluation of Biological Activities of Aziridine Derivatives of Urea and Thiourea.

In the present paper, we report the synthesis and evaluation of in vitro antimicrobial activities of aziridine-thiourea derivatives. A series of aziridines in reaction with isocyanates and isothiocyanates to obtain urea and thiourea derivatives were used. The structures of all new products were confirmed based on spectroscopic data (¹H-NMR, 13C-NMR, HR-MS). These compounds were screened for their in vitro antimicrobial activity against a panel of Gram-positive and Gram-negative strains of bacteria. Six of the tested compounds appeared to be promising agents against reference strains of Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus and Staphylococcus epidermidis. Subsequently, compounds exhibiting promising antibacterial activity were tested against twelve clinical isolates of S. aureus from three different sources of infection. The most bactericidal compounds (MIC = 16-32 µg/mL) showed better antibacterial activity against MRSA than ampicillin and streptomycin. The in vitro cytotoxicity analysis on L929 murine fibroblast and HeLa human tumor cell line using the MTT assay allowed us to select the least toxic compounds for future investigation.

Synthesis and evaluation of antimicrobial activity of hydrazones derived from 3-oxido-1H-imidazole-4-carbohydrazides.

In this work we reported the synthesis and evaluation of in vitro antimicrobial activities of hydrazones 6 obtained from 3-oxido-1H-imidazole-4-carbohydrazides 4. All new compounds were characterized by spectroscopic methods. Hydrazones 6 were tested for their in vitro antimicrobial activity against four Gram-positive and four Gram-negative strains of bacteria as well as one fungal species. Three of the tested compounds appeared to be promising agents against reference strains of Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus and Staphylococcus epidermidis. They were also tested against twelve clinical isolates of S. aureus and their cytotoxic effect on murine fibroblasts and HeLa human tumor cell line was determined.