A Review on Onychine and its Analogs: Synthesis and Biological Activity.

BACKGROUND: Onychine is a 4-azafluorenone alkaloid isolated from the Annonaceae family, in low concentrations. Onychine and its analogs exhibit a wide range of pharmacological activities such as antifungal, antibacterial, anticancer, and antimalarial. Because of the high bioactivity of some 4-azafluorenone derivatives, several synthetic methods have been developed for their procurement. OBJECTIVE: Considering the importance of these alkaloids, we aim to present the main synthetic approaches to onychines and its derivatives and the biological activity of some 4-azafluorenones. METHODS: The most prominent methodologies for the synthesis of onychines were reviewed. RESULTS: In this work, we cover many synthetic approaches for the synthesis of onychine and 4-azafluorenone derivatives including intramolecular cyclizations, multicomponent reactions, microwave-assisted multicomponent reactions, Diels-alder reactions, among others. Moreover, we also review the biological activity of 4-azafluorenones. CONCLUSION: 4-azafluorenones have risen as prominent structures in medicinal chemistry; however, most of the time, access to new derivatives involves toxic catalysts, harsh reaction conditions, and long-step procedures. Therefore, the development of new synthetic routes with more operational simplicity, simple purification procedure, good yields, and low environmental impact, is desirable.

Crystal structures and Hirshfeld surfaces of two 1,3-benzoxa-thiol-2-one derivatives.

The crystal structures of 6-meth-oxy-1,3-benzoxa-thiol-2-one, C9H8O3S, (I), and 2-oxo-1,3-benzoxa-thiol-6-yl acetate, C9H6O4S, (II), are described. Compound (I) is almost planar (r.m.s. deviation for the non-H atoms = 0.011 Å), whereas (II) shows a substantial twist between the fused-ring system and the acetate substituent [dihedral angle = 74.42 (3)°]. For both structures, the bond distances in the heterocyclic ring suggest that little if any conjugation occurs. In the crystal of (I), C-H⋯O hydrogen bonds link the mol-ecules into [1-11] chains incorporating alternating R22(8) and R22(12) inversion dimers. The extended structure of (II) features C(7) [201] chains linked by C-H⋯O hydrogen bonds, with further C-H⋯O bonds and weak π-π stacking inter-actions connecting the chains into a three-dimensional network. Hirshfeld fingerprint analyses for (I) and (II) are presented and discussed.

Evaluation of 1,3-benzoxathiol-2-one Derivatives as Potential Antifungal Agents.

BACKGROUND: Over the last few years, fungal infections have emerged as a worrisome global public health problem. Candidiasis is a disease caused by Candida species and has been a problem worldwide mainly for immunosuppressed patients. Lately, the resistant strains and side effects have been reported as important issues for treating Candidiasis, which have to be solved by identifying new drugs. OBJECTIVE: The goal of this work was to synthesize a series of 1,3-benzoxathiol-2-one derivatives, XYbenzo[ d][1,3]oxathiol-2-ones, and evaluate their antifungal activity against five Candida species. METHODS: In vitro antifungal screening test and minimum inhibitory concentration determination were performed according to CLSI protocols using ketoconazole as the reference drug. The cytotoxicity of the most active compounds was evaluated by hemolysis and MTT (Vero cells) assays. RESULTS: Compounds 2 (XY = 6-hydroxy-5-nitro, MIC = 4-32 µg/mL) and 7 (XY = 6-acetoxy-5-nitro, MIC =16-64 µg/mL) showed good results when compared with current antifungals in CLSI values (MIC = 0.04-250 µg/mL). These compounds exhibited a safer cytotoxicity as well as a lower hemolytic profile than ketoconazole. CONCLUSION: Overall, the in vitro results pointed to the potential of compounds 2 and 7 as new antifungal prototypes to be further explored.

Synthesis and in vivo antimalarial evaluation of novel hydroxyethylamine derivatives.

A series of hydroxyethylamines has been synthesized from the reaction of (2S,3S )Boc-phenylalanine epoxide with alkyl amines in good yields and evaluated for their in vivo antimalarial activity in mice. Compound 4g presented better activity then the reference artesunate in percentage of inhibition of parasitemia in treated P. berghei-infected mice and compare to the activity of artesunate in the survival of mice 14 days after infection. In addiction, no hemolytic activity was found, which supports that inhibition of parasitemia is due to antimalarial activity. The compound 4g inhibited the differentiation to schizonts suggesting that parasite metabolism is a possible target of 4g. These results indicate that this class of compound possesses promising perspectives for the development of new antimalarial drugs.

Synthesis and antimalarial activity of thioetherhydroxyethylsulfonamides, potential aspartyl protease inhibitors, Part 3.

A series of novel thioetherhydroxyethylsulfonamide derivatives has been synthesized from the coupling of intermediates 3-amino-4-phenyl-1-thioetherazine-butan-2-oles 6,7 with arenesulfonyl chlorides in good yields. Characterizations of products were achieved by NMR techniques and specifically for compound 8e by X-ray crystallography. Preliminary results of antimalarial activity in vitro against the Plasmodium falciparum W2 clone (chloroquine resistant and mefloquine sensitive) showed moderate activity for hydroxyethylsulfonamide 8f. In addition, none of the compounds tested showed cytotoxicity at high concentration tested against HepG2 and BGM cell lines.

Synthesis and anti-mycobacterial activity of novel amino alcohol derivatives.

Thirteen new hydroxyethylamines have been synthesized from reactions of (2S,3S)Boc-phenylalanine epoxide, piperonylamine and arenesulfonyl chlorides in good yields. These compounds were evaluated as antibacterial agents against Mycobacterium tuberculosis H37Rv using the Alamar Blue susceptibility test and their activity expressed as the minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) in µM. Two amino alcohols displayed significant activity when compared with first line drug ethambutol (EMB). Therefore this class of compounds could be a good starting point to develop new lead compounds in the treatment of tuberculosis.

Efficient sonochemical synthesis of thiazolidinones from piperonilamine.

An efficient multicomponent reaction of arenealdehydes, mercaptoacetic acid and piperonilamine under ultrasound irradiation to afford 2-aryl-3-(piperonylmethyl)-1,3-thiazolidin-4-ones is reported. Applying this methodology, eleven heterocycles were synthesized and isolated in good yields after short reaction times.

Synthesis, antimalarial evaluation and molecular modeling studies of hydroxyethylpiperazines, potential aspartyl protease inhibitors, part 2.

The antimalarial acitivity of hydroxyethylamines, synthesized from the reaction of intermediated hydroxyethypiperazines with benzenesulfonyl chlorides or benzoyl chlorides, has been evaluated in vitro against a W2 Plasmodium falciparum clone. Some of the nineteen tested derivatives showed a significant activity in vitro, thus turning into a promising new class of antimalarials. In addition, a molecular modeling study of the most active derivative (5l) was performed and its most probable binding modes within plasmepsin II enzyme were identified.

Synthesis and antimalarial activity of hydroxyethylpiperazine derivatives.

The antimalarial activity of hydroxyethylpiperazine derivatives, synthesized from the reaction of (2S,3S)Boc-phenylalanine epoxide with benzylpiperazines in good yields (76-96%), has been evaluated in vitro against the Plasmodium falciparum W2 clone (chloroquine resistant). The results show that some compounds have moderate activity against this parasite and none of the active compounds showed cytotoxicity at high concentration (100 microg/ml).

Racemic 2-isopropyl-3-(2-nitrobenzyl)-1,3-thiazolidin-4-one crystallizes in the space group P2(1)2(1)2(1) with Z' = 2: two different interpenetrating three-dimensional frameworks formed by C-H...O hydrogen bonds.

rac-2-Isopropyl-3-(2-nitrobenzyl)-1,3-thiadiazolin-4-one, C(13)H(16)N(2)O(3)S, is a rare example of a racemate crystallizing in the space group P2(1)2(1)2(1), with one molecule each of S and R configurations, whose conformations are almost mirror images, within the asymmetric unit. The molecules of S configuration are linked by two C-H...O hydrogen bonds into a three-dimensional framework, and the molecules of R configuration are linked by two further C-H...O hydrogen bonds into a different type of three-dimensional framework; the two frameworks are linked by a fifth C-H...O hydrogen bond.