Restoring Mitochondrial Function: A Small Molecule-mediated Approach to Enhance Glucose Stimulated Insulin Secretion in Cholesterol Accumulated Pancreatic beta cells.

Dyslipidemia, particularly the elevated serum cholesterol levels, aggravate the pathophysiology of type 2 diabetes. In the present study we explored the relationship between fasting blood sugar and serum lipid parameters in human volunteers which revealed a significant linear effect of serum cholesterol on fasting blood glucose. Short term feeding of cholesterol enriched diet to rodent model resulted in elevated serum cholesterol levels, cholesterol accumulation in pancreatic islets and hyperinsulinemia with modest increase in plasma glucose level. To explore the mechanism, we treated cultured BRIN-BD11 pancreatic beta cells with soluble cholesterol. Our data shows that cholesterol treatment of cultured pancreatic beta cells enhances total cellular cholesterol. While one hour cholesterol exposure enhances insulin exocytosis, overnight cholesterol accumulation in cultured pancreatic beta cells affects cellular respiration, and inhibits Glucose stimulated insulin secretion. We further report that (E)-4-Chloro-2-(1-(2-(2,4,6-trichlorophenyl) hydrazono) ethyl) phenol (small molecule M1) prevents the cholesterol mediated blunting of cellular respiration and potentiates Glucose stimulated insulin secretion which was abolished in pancreatic beta cells on cholesterol accumulation.

Design, synthesis, and structure-activity correlations of novel dibenzo[b,d]furan, dibenzo[b,d]thiophene, and N-methylcarbazole clubbed 1,2,3-triazoles as potent inhibitors of Mycobacterium tuberculosis.

A molecular hybridization approach is an emerging structural modification tool to design new molecules with improved pharmacophoric properties. In this study, 1,2,3-triazole-based Mycobacterium tuberculosis inhibitors and synthetic and natural product-based tricyclic (carbazole, dibenzo[b,d]furan, and dibenzo[b,d]thiophene) antimycobacterial agents were integrated in one molecular platform to prepare various novel clubbed 1,2,3-triazole hybrids using click chemistry. Structure-activity correlations and in vitro activity against M. tuberculosis strain H37Rv of new analogues revealed the order: dibenzo[b,d]thiophene > dibenzo[b,d]furan > 9-methyl-9H-carbazole series. Two of the most potent M. tuberculosis inhibitors 13h and 13q with MIC = 0.78 µg/mL (∼1.9 µM) displayed a low cytotoxicity and high selectivity index (50-255) against four different human cancer cell lines. These results together provided the potential importance of molecular hybridization and the development of triazole clubbed dibenzo[b,d]thiophene-based lead candidates to treat mycobacterial infections.

Synthesis, structure-activity relationship of novel substituted 4H-chromen-1,2,3,4-tetrahydropyrimidine-5-carboxylates as potential anti-mycobacterial and anticancer agents.

Series of 4H-chromen-1,2,3,4-tetrahydropyrimidine-5-carboxylate derivatives 7a-7zb, 8a-8d and 9a-9d were synthesized and screened for their in vitro anti-mycobacterial activity against Mycobacterium tuberculosis H(37)Rv (MTB) and cytotoxicity against three human cancer cell lines including A549, SK-N-SH and HeLa. The results indicate that six compounds are more potent and 7za is most effective anti-mycobacterial derivative compared to the standard drugs Ethambutol and Ciprofloxacin. However, 12 compounds exhibited cytotoxicity against human neuroblastoma cell line; amongst them the compound 7v is most effective compared to the standard drug Doxorubicin. This is the first report assigning in vitro anti-mycobacterial, anticancer and structure-activity relationship for this new class of 4H-chromen-1,2,3,4-tetrahydropyrimidine-5-carboxylates.

Two new cytotoxic labdane diterpenes from the rhizomes of Hedychium coronarium.

The phytochemical investigation of the hexane extract of the Hedychium coronarium led to the isolation and identification of two new labdane diterpenes (1 and 2) along with 10 known metabolites (3-12). The structures of the new compounds were established on the basis of spectroscopic data analysis (1D and 2D NMR and MS). Cytotoxic activities of the isolates were studied against the A-549 (lung cancer), SK-N-SH (human neuroblastoma), MCF-7 (breast cancer) and HeLa (cervical cancer) cell lines.

Total synthesis of (+/-)-elegansidiol, (+/-)-farnesiferol B, and (+/-)-farnesiferol D.

The racemic total synthesis of elegansidiol, farnesiferol B, and farnesiferol D has been obtained following a Diels-Alder approach. Gillman addition, cross metathesis reaction are the other key steps involved in the target synthesis.