Novel halogenated 3-deazapurine, 7-deazapurine and alkylated 9-deazapurine derivatives of L-ascorbic or imino-L-ascorbic acid: Synthesis, antitumour and antiviral activity evaluations.

Keeping the potential synergy of biological activity of synthetic anomalous derivatives of deazapurines and l-ascorbic acid (l-AA) in mind, we have synthesized new 3-, 7- and 9-deazapurine derivatives of l-ascorbic (1-4, 8-10, 13-15) and imino-l-ascorbic acid (5-7, 11, 12, 16-19). These novel compounds were evaluated for their cytostatic and antiviral activity in vitro against a panel of human malignant tumour cell lines and normal murine fibroblasts (3T3). Among all evaluated compounds, the 9-deazapurine derivative of l-AA (13) exerted the most potent inhibitory activity on the growth of CEM/0 cells (IC50 = 4.1 ± 1.8 µM) and strong antiproliferative effect against L1210/0 (IC50 = 4.7 ± 0.1 µM) while the 9-deazahypoxanthine derivative of l-AA (15) showed the best effect against HeLa cells (IC50 = 5.6 ± 1.3 µM) and prominent effect on L1210/0 (IC50 = 4.5 ± 0.5 µM). Furthermore, the 9-deazapurine derivative disubstituted with two imino-l-AA moieties (18) showed the best activity against L1210/0 tumour cells (IC50 = 4.4 ± 0.3 µM) and the most pronounced antiproliferative effects against MiaPaCa-2 cells (IC50 = 5.7 ± 0.2 µM). All these compounds showed selective cytostatic effect on tumour cell lines in comparison with embryonal murine fibroblasts (3T3). When evaluating their antiviral activity, the 3-deazapurine derivative of l-AA (3) exhibited the highest activity against both laboratory-adapted strains of human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) (AD-169 and Davis) with EC50 values comparable to those of the well-known anti-HCMV drug ganciclovir and without cytotoxic effects on normal human embryonal lung (HEL) cells.

Novel 1,2,4-triazole and imidazole derivatives of L-ascorbic and imino-ascorbic acid: synthesis, anti-HCV and antitumor activity evaluations.

Several novel 1,2,4-triazole and imidazole L-ascorbic acid (1, 2, 3, 5, 6 and 9) and imino-ascorbic acid (4, 7 and 8) derivatives were prepared and evaluated for their inhibitory activity against hepatitis C virus (HCV) replication and human tumour cell proliferation. Compounds 6 and 9 exerted the most pronounced cytostatic effects in all tumour cell lines tested, and were highly selective for human T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukaemia cells (CEM/0) with IC(50)s of 10 ± 4 and 7.3 ± 0.1 µM, respectively. Unlike compound 9, compound 6 showed no toxicity in human diploid fibroblasts. One of the possible mechanisms of action of compound 6 accounting for observed cytostatic activity towards haematological malignancies might be inhibition of inosine monophosphate dehydrogenase (IMPDH) activity, a key enzyme of de novo purine nucleotide biosynthesis providing the cells with precursors for DNA and RNA synthesis indispensable for cell growth and division, which has emerged as an important target for antileukemic therapy. In addition, this compound proved to be the most potent inhibitor of the hepatitis C virus replication as well. However, observed antiviral effect was most likely associated with the effect that the compound exerted on the host cell rather than with selective effect on the replication of the virus itself. In conclusion, results of this study put forward compound 6 as a potential novel antitumor agent (IMPDH inhibitor) for treating leukaemia. Its significant biological activity and low toxicity in human diploid fibroblasts encourage further development of this compound as a lead.