Invention of MK-8262, a Cholesteryl Ester Transfer Protein (CETP) Inhibitor Backup to Anacetrapib with Best-in-Class Properties.

Cholesteryl ester transfer protein (CETP) represents one of the key regulators of the homeostasis of lipid particles, including high-density lipoprotein (HDL) and low-density lipoprotein (LDL) particles. Epidemiological evidence correlates increased HDL and decreased LDL to coronary heart disease (CHD) risk reduction. This relationship is consistent with a clinical outcomes trial of a CETP inhibitor (anacetrapib) combined with standard of care (statin), which led to a 9% additional risk reduction compared to standard of care alone. We discuss here the discovery of MK-8262, a CETP inhibitor with the potential for being the best-in-class molecule. Novel in vitro and in vivo paradigms were integrated to drug discovery to guide optimization informed by a critical understanding of key clinical adverse effect profiles. We present preclinical and clinical evidence of MK-8262 safety and efficacy by means of HDL increase and LDL reduction as biomarkers for reduced CHD risk.

Novel candidates in the clinical development pipeline for TB drug development and their synthetic approaches.

Tuberculosis (TB) is an infection caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) and one of the deadliest infectious diseases in the world. Mtb has the ability to become dormant within the host and to develop resistance. Hence, new antitubercular agents are required to overcome problems in the treatment of multi-drug-resistant Tb (MDR-Tb) and extensively drug-resistant Tb (XDR-Tb) along with shortening the treatment time. Several efforts are being made to develop very effective new drugs for Tb, within the pharmaceutical industry, the academia and through public-private partnerships. This review will address the antitubercular activities, biological target, mode of action, synthetic approaches and thoughtful concept for the development of several new drugs currently in the clinical trial pipeline (up to October 2019) for tuberculosis. The aim of this review may be very useful in scheming new chemical entities (NCEs) for Mtb.

"Smart Decomposition" of Cyclic Alanine-Alanine Dipeptide by VUV Radiation: A Seed for the Synthesis of Biologically Relevant Species.

A combined experimental and theoretical study shows how the interaction of VUV radiation with cyclo-(alanine-alanine), one of the 2,5-diketopiperazines (DKPs), produces reactive oxazolidinone intermediates. The theoretical simulations reveal that the interaction of these intermediates with other neutral and charged fragments, released in the molecular decomposition, leads either to the reconstruction of the cyclic dipeptide or to the formation of longer linear peptide chains. These results may explain how DKPs could have, on one hand, survived hostile chemical environments and, on the other, provided the seed for amino acid polymerization. Shedding light on the mechanisms of production of such prebiotic building blocks is of paramount importance to understanding the abiotic synthesis of relevant biologically active compounds.

Current Landscape and Future Perspective of Oxazolidinone Scaffolds Containing Antibacterial Drugs.

The widespread use of antibiotics has made the problem of bacterial resistance increasingly serious, and the study of new drug-resistant bacteria has become the main direction of antibacterial drug research. Among antibiotics, the fully synthetic oxazolidinone antibacterial drugs linezolid and tedizolid have been successfully marketed and have achieved good clinical treatment effects. Oxazolidinone antibacterial drugs have good pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic characteristics and unique antibacterial mechanisms, and resistant bacteria are sensitive to them. This Perspective focuses on reviewing oxazolidinones based on the structural modification of linezolid and new potential oxazolidinone drugs in the past 10 years, mainly describing their structure, antibacterial activity, safety, druggability, and so on, and discusses their structure-activity relationships, providing insight into the reasonable design of safer and more potent oxazolidinone antibacterial drugs.

Pd-Catalysed direct C(sp2)-H fluorination of aromatic ketones: concise access to anacetrapib.

The Pd-cataylsed direct ortho-C(sp2)-H fluorination of aromatic ketones has been developed for the first time. The reaction features good regioselectivity and simple operations, constituting an alternative shortcut to access fluorinated ketones. A concise synthesis of anacetrapib has also been achieved by using late-stage C-H fluorination as a key step.

Leveraging Marine Natural Products as a Platform to Tackle Bacterial Resistance and Persistence.

Antimicrobial resistance to existing antibiotics represents one of the greatest threats to human health and is growing at an alarming rate. To further complicate treatment of bacterial infections, many chronic infections are the result of bacterial biofilms that are tolerant to treatment with antibiotics because of the presence of metabolically dormant persister cell populations. Together these threats are creating an increasing burden on the healthcare system, and a "preantibiotic" age is on the horizon if significant action is not taken by the scientific and medical communities. While the golden era of antibiotic discovery (1940s-1960s) produced most of the antibiotic classes in clinical use today, followed by several decades of limited development, there has been a resurgence in antibiotic drug discovery in recent years fueled by the academic and biotech sectors. Historically, great success has been achieved by developing next-generation variants of existing classes of antibiotics, but there remains a dire need for the identification of novel scaffolds and/or antimicrobial targets to drive future efforts to overcome resistance and tolerance. In this regard, there has been no more valuable source for the identification of antibiotics than natural products, with 69-77% of approved antibiotics either being such compounds or being derived from them.Our group has developed a program centered on the chemical synthesis and chemical microbiology of marine natural products with unusual structures and promising levels of activity against multidrug-resistant (MDR) bacterial pathogens. As we are motivated by preparing and studying the biological effects of these molecules, we are not initially pursuing a biological question but instead are allowing the observed phenotypes and activities to guide the ultimate project direction. In this Account, our recent efforts on the synoxazolidinone, lipoxazolidinone, and batzelladine natural products will be discussed and placed in the context of the field's greatest challenges and opportunities. Specifically, the synoxazolidinone family of 4-oxazolidinone-containing natural products has led to the development of several chemical methods to prepare antimicrobial scaffolds and has revealed compounds with potent activity as adjuvants to treat bacterial biofilms. Bearing the same 4-oxazolidinone core, the lipoxazolidinones have proven to be potent single-agent antibiotics. Finally, our synthetic efforts toward the batzelladines revealed analogues with activity against a number of MDR pathogens, highlighted by non-natural stereochemical isomers with superior activity and simplified synthetic access. Taken together, these studies provide several distinct platforms for the development of novel therapeutics that can add to our arsenal of scaffolds for preclinical development and can provide insight into the biochemical processes and pathways that can be targeted by small molecules in the fight against antimicrobial-resistant and -tolerant infections. We hope that this work will serve as inspiration for increased efforts by the scientific community to leverage synthetic chemistry and chemical microbiology toward novel antibiotics that can combat the growing crisis of MDR and tolerant bacterial infections.

Installation of an aryl boronic acid function into the external section of N-aryl-oxazolidinones: Synthesis and antimicrobial evaluation.

N-aryl-oxazolidinones is a prominent family of antimicrobials used for treating infections caused by clinically prevalent Gram-positive bacteria. Recently, boron-containing compounds have displayed intriguing potential in the antibiotic discovery setting. Herein, we report the unprecedented introduction of a boron-containing moiety such as an aryl boronic acid in the external region of the oxazolidinone structure via a chemoselective acyl coupling reaction. As a result, we accessed a series of analogues with a distal aryl boronic pharmacophore on the oxazolidinone scaffold. We identified that a peripheric linear conformation coupled with freedom of rotation and no further substitution on the external aryl boronic ring, an amido linkage with hydrogen bonding character, in addition to a para-relative disposition between boronic group and linker, are the optimal combination of structural features in this series for antimicrobial activity. In comparison to linezolid, the analogue comprising all those features, compound 20b, displayed levels of antimicrobial activity augmented by an eight-fold to a thirty-two-fold against a panel of Gram-positive strains, and a near one hundred-fold against Escherichia coli JW5503, a Gram-negative mutant strain with a defective efflux capability.

Anti-progressive Effects of a Series of Glycinyl and Alaninyl Triazolyl-oxazolidinones on Kelly Neuroblastoma Cell Line.

BACKGROUND/AIM: Neuroblastoma (NB), the most common extracranial malignant childhood tumor accounts for about 15% of cancer-related deaths in children. Despite the intensive treatment of patients with high-risk scarification of NB, clinical outcomes indicate tumor recurrence greater than 50% and late severe adverse effects. Oxazolidinones are 5-membered heterocyclic compounds with antibacterial activity against resistant bacterial strains. Structural modifications around the oxazolidinone moiety have resulted in derivatives with anti-cancer properties against proliferation, motility, and invasion of breast cancer cells. This study aimed to examine the anti-cancer potential of novel oxazolidinones against a model of a neuroblastoma cell line. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Newly synthesized and characterized triazolyl-oxazolidinone derivatives were incubated with neuroblastoma Kelly cells. The anti-proliferation and anti-progression effects of the compounds were evaluated by MTT, and adhesion with migration assays. RESULTS: The 5-nitrofuroyl glycinyl-oxazolidinone containing 4-methyltriazolyl group demonstrated the most potent activity with an IC50=6.52 µM. Furthermore, the D-isomer of 5-nitrothiophenecarbonyl alaninyl containing derivative reduced the adhesion to fibronectin by 56.34%, while the D-isomer of 5-nitrofuroyl alaninyl derivative reduced the migration of Kelly cells by 29.14%. CONCLUSION: The presence of the 4-methyltriazolyl moiety seems to enhance the anti-proliferative property of triazolyl-oxazolidinone derivatives, as demonstrated by PH-145. There is little or no effect of the stereochemistry of the alanine side-chain on the antiproliferative effect, as demonstrated by the 5-nitrofuroyl D- and L-alaninyl containing derivatives with similar IC50 values. The observed differences in the inhibition of adhesion and migration by the oxazolidinones on Kelly cells provide a new therapeutic approach that needs further investigation.

Synthesis and structure-activity relationships of novel 5-(hydroxamic acid)methyl oxazolidinone derivatives as 5-lipoxygenase inhibitors.

Oxazolidinone hydroxamic acid derivatives were synthesised and evaluated for inhibitory activity against leukotriene (LT) biosynthesis in three in vitro cell-based test systems and on direct inhibition of recombinant human 5-lipoxygenase (5-LO). Thirteen of the 19 compounds synthesised were considered active ((50% inhibitory concentration (IC50) ≤ 10 µM in two or more test systems)). Increasing alkyl chain length on the hydroxamic acid moiety enhanced activity and morpholinyl-containing derivatives were more active than N-acetyl-piperizinyl derivatives. The IC50 values in cell-based assay systems were comparable to those obtained by direct inhibition of 5-LO activity, confirming that the compounds are direct inhibitors of 5-LO. Particularly, compounds PH-249 and PH-251 had outstanding potencies (IC50 < 1 µM), comparable to that of the prototype 5-LO inhibitor, zileuton. Pronounced in vivo activity was demonstrated in zymosan-induced peritonitis in mice. These novel oxazolidinone hydroxamic acid derivatives are, therefore, potent 5-LO inhibitors with potential application as anti-allergic and anti-inflammatory agents.

Understanding ring-closing and racemization to prepare α-amino acid NCA and NTA monomers: a DFT study.

Polypeptides and polypeptoids are promising materials in biomedical applications bearing α-amino acid repeating units, which are prepared from ring-opening polymerizations of α-amino acid N-carboxyanhydride (NCA) or N-thiocarboxyanydride (NTA) monomers. Detailed studies on monomer synthetic routes are essential to explore new α-amino acid NCA and NTA monomers as well as the corresponding poly(α-amino acid) materials. In this contribution, density functional theory (DFT) is applied to investigate the mechanism of the Leuchs approach including two possible pathways, precursor structure and racemization in the ring-closing reaction. According to DFT calculations, pathway 2 is preferred with lower ΔG than pathway 1, and the rate-determining step is recognized as an SN2 substitution with releasing equivalent halogenated hydrocarbon, which explains our experimental observations. Racemization results from the reaction between the NTA monomer and a strong protonic acid, which can be suppressed by low temperature and short reaction time. Racemization is inhibited by steric hindrance in those NTAs of α-amino acids containing high bulkiness at the ß-carbon, such as leucine-NTA.

Scaffolding-Induced Property Modulation of Chemical Space.

Physicochemical property switching of chemical space is of great importance for optimization of compounds, for example, for biological activity. Cyclization is a key method to control 3D and other properties. A two-step approach, which involves a multicomponent reaction followed by cyclization, is reported to achieve the transition from basic moieties to charge neutral cyclic derivatives. A series of multisubstituted oxazolidinones, oxazinanones, and oxazepanones as well as their thio and sulfur derivatives are synthesized from readily available building blocks with mild conditions and high yields. Like a few other methods, MCR and cyclization allow for the collective transformation of a large chemical space into a related one with different properties.

Design, synthesis, and biological evaluation of 3-amino-2-oxazolidinone derivatives as potent quorum-sensing inhibitors of Pseudomonas aeruginosa PAO1.

Due to the increasing resistance of Pseudomonas aeruginosa to most clinically relevant antimicrobials, it is challenging to treat bacterial infection with traditional antibiotics. Quorum sensing can regulate the production of biofilms and virulence factors which are closely related to bacterial resistance. Previously we synthesized a series of oxazolidinone compounds targeting the quorum-sensing transcriptional regulatory protein CviR and ZS-12 showed good activity against Chromobacterium violaceum CV026 quorum-sensing. In this study, eighteen 3-amino-2-oxazolidinone compounds were designed and synthesized using ZS-12 as the lead compound. We initially evaluated the inhibitory activities of novel oxazolidinone compounds against QS using C. violaceum CV026 as a reporter strain. Thirteen compounds showed good activities (IC50 range 3.69-63.58 µM) and YXL-13 inhibition was the most significant (IC50 = 3.686 ± 0.5790 µM) against biofilm formation and virulence factors determination of P. aeruginosa PAO1. In vitro, YXL-13 significantly inhibited the formation of PAO1 biofilm (range 42.98%-17.67%), the production of virulence factors (pyocyanin, elastase, rhamnolipid, and protease), and bacterial motility. Moreover, the combination of YXL-13 with an antibiotic (meropenem trihydrate) could significantly improve the antibiotic susceptibility of biofilm P. aeruginosa PAO1 cells. In vivo, YXL-13 significantly prolonged the lifespan of wildtype Caenorhabditis elegans N2 infected by P. aeruginosa PAO1. In conclusion, YXL-13 is a candidate agent for antibiotic-resistant P. aeruginosa PAO1and provides a method for finding new antibacterial drugs.

Late-stage oxidative C(sp3)-H methylation.

Frequently referred to as the 'magic methyl effect', the installation of methyl groups-especially adjacent (α) to heteroatoms-has been shown to dramatically increase the potency of biologically active molecules1-3. However, existing methylation methods show limited scope and have not been demonstrated in complex settings1. Here we report a regioselective and chemoselective oxidative C(sp3)-H methylation method that is compatible with late-stage functionalization of drug scaffolds and natural products. This combines a highly site-selective and chemoselective C-H hydroxylation with a mild, functional-group-tolerant methylation. Using a small-molecule manganese catalyst, Mn(CF3PDP), at low loading (at a substrate/catalyst ratio of 200) affords targeted C-H hydroxylation on heterocyclic cores, while preserving electron-neutral and electron-rich aryls. Fluorine- or Lewis-acid-assisted formation of reactive iminium or oxonium intermediates enables the use of a mildly nucleophilic organoaluminium methylating reagent that preserves other electrophilic functionalities on the substrate. We show this late-stage C(sp3)-H methylation on 41 substrates housing 16 different medicinally important cores that include electron-rich aryls, heterocycles, carbonyls and amines. Eighteen pharmacologically relevant molecules with competing sites-including drugs (for example, tedizolid) and natural products-are methylated site-selectively at the most electron rich, least sterically hindered position. We demonstrate the syntheses of two magic methyl substrates-an inverse agonist for the nuclear receptor RORc and an antagonist of the sphingosine-1-phosphate receptor-1-via late-stage methylation from the drug or its advanced precursor. We also show a remote methylation of the B-ring carbocycle of an abiraterone analogue. The ability to methylate such complex molecules at late stages will reduce synthetic effort and thereby expedite broader exploration of the magic methyl effect in pursuit of new small-molecule therapeutics and chemical probes.

Synthesis and evaluation of in vivo anti-hypothermic effect of all stereoisomers of the thyrotropin-releasing hormone mimetic: Rovatirelin Hydrate.

We discovered the orally active thyrotropin-releasing hormone (TRH) mimetic: (4S,5S)-5-methyl-N-{(2S)-1-[(2R)-2-methylpyrrolidin-1-yl]-1-oxo-3-(1,3-thiazol-4-yl)propan-2-yl}-2-oxo-1,3-oxazolidine-4-carboxamide 1 (rovatirelin). The central nervous system (CNS) effect of rovatirelin after intravenous (iv) administration is 100-fold higher than that of TRH. As 1 has four asymmetric carbons in its molecule, there are 16 stereoisomers. We synthesized and evaluated the anti-hypothermic effect of all stereoisomers of 1, which has the (4S),(5S),(2S),(2R) configuration from the N-terminus to the C-terminus, in order to clarify the structure-activity relationship (SAR) of stereoisomers. The (4R),(5R),(2R),(2S)-isomer 16 did not show any anti-hypothermic effect. Only the (4S),(5S),(2S),(2S)-isomer 10, which has the (2S)-2-methylpyrrolidine moiety at the C-terminus showed the anti-hypothermic effect similar to 1. Stereoisomers, which have the (5R) configuration of the oxazolidinone at the N-terminus and the (2R) configuration at the middle-part, showed a much lower anti-hypothermic effect than that of 1. On the other hand, stereoisomers, which have the (4R) configuration of the oxazolidinone at the N-terminus or the (2S) configuration of the C-terminus, have little influence on the anti-hypothermic effect.

Synthesis and antibacterial evaluation of novel oxazolidinone derivatives containing a piperidinyl moiety.

In this article, a series of novel oxazolidinone derivatives containing a piperidinyl moiety was designed and synthesized. Their antibacterial activities were measured against S. aureus, MRSA, MSSA, LREF and VRE by MIC assay. Most of them exhibited potent activity against Gram-positive pathogens comparable to linezolid. Among them, compound 9h exhibited comparable activity with linezolid against human MAO-A for safety evaluation and showed moderate metabolism in human liver microsome. The most promising compound 9h, which showed remarkable antibacterial activity against S. aureus, MRSA, MSSA, LREF and VRE pathogens with MIC value of 0.25-1 µg/mL, was an interesting candidate for further investigation.

MnFe2O4 magnetic nanoparticles modified with chitosan polymeric and phosphotungstic acid as a novel and highly effective green nanocatalyst for regio- and stereoselective synthesis of functionalized oxazolidin-2-ones.

A novel magnetically recoverable acid nanocatalyst, MnFe2O4/chitosan/phosphotungstic acid (MnFe2O4@CS@PTA), was successfully synthesized. The synthesized nanoparticle was studied as the heterogenous nanocatalyst to prepare the functionalized oxazolidin-2-ones as versatile chiral synthons in asymmetrically synthesizing the compounds with biological activity through the reaction of α-epoxyketones with urea and thiourea. This new procedure has notable advantages such as excellent yields, green reaction conditions, and short reaction time. In addition, the excellent catalytic performance in protic solvent and the easy preparation, thermal stability and separation of the catalyst make it a good heterogeneous system and a useful alternative to other heterogeneous catalysts. Perhaps, the synthesized MnFe2O4@CS@PTA is a hopeful catalytic substance for mass fine chemicals production. The structure and composition of the nanocomposite was performed by different methods and analyzed by Infrared Spectroscopy (FT-IR), Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscopy (FE-SEM), Thermo-Gravimetric Analysis (TGA), X-ray Diffraction (XRD) Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM), Vibrating Sample Magnetometer (VSM) and Brunauere Emmette Teller (BET).

Exploration of the structure-activity relationship and druggability of novel oxazolidinone-based compounds as Gram-negative antibacterial agents.

To gain further knowledge of the structure-activity relationship and druggability of novel oxazolidinone-based UDP-3-O-acyl-N-acetylglucosamine deacetylase (LpxC) inhibitors as Gram-negative antibacterial agents, compounds containing the hydrophobic tails with different lengths and terminal substitutions were synthesized and their antibacterial activities against standard and clinically isolated Gram-negative strains were evaluated. We summarized their structure-activity relationships and found that oxazolidinone-based compounds exhibited a narrower antibacterial spectrum compared with threonine-based compounds. Furthermore, we parallelly compared the metabolic stabilities of the compounds with the classic threonine scaffold and the novel oxazolidinone scaffold in liver microsomes. The results indicated that the druggability of the oxazolidinone scaffold may be inferior to the classic threonine scaffold in the design of LpxC inhibitors.

Ionic Liquid-Promoted Three-Component Domino Reaction of Propargyl Alcohols, Carbon Dioxide and 2-Aminoethanols: A Thermodynamically Favorable Synthesis of 2-Oxazolidinones.

To circumvent the thermodynamic limitation of the synthesis of oxazolidinones starting from 2-aminoethanols and CO2 and realize incorporation CO2 under atmospheric pressure, a protic ionic liquid-facilitated three-component reaction of propargyl alcohols, CO2 and 2-aminoethanols was developed to produce 2-oxazolidinones along with equal amount of α-hydroxyl ketones. The ionic liquid structure, reaction temperature and reaction time were in detail investigated. And 15 mol% 1,5,7-triazabicylo[4.4.0]dec-5-ene ([TBDH][TFE]) trifluoroethanol was found to be able to synergistically activate the substrate and CO2, thus catalyzing this cascade reaction under atmospheric CO2 pressure. By employing this task-specific ionic liquid as sustainable catalyst, 2-aminoethanols with different substituents were successfully transformed to 2-oxazolidinones with moderate to excellent yield after 12 h at 80 °C.

Design and Synthesis of Potent HIV-1 Protease Inhibitors Containing Bicyclic Oxazolidinone Scaffold as the P2 Ligands: Structure-Activity Studies and Biological and X-ray Structural Studies.

We have designed, synthesized, and evaluated a new class of potent HIV-1 protease inhibitors with novel bicyclic oxazolidinone derivatives as the P2 ligand. We have developed an enantioselective synthesis of these bicyclic oxazolidinones utilizing a key o-iodoxybenzoic acid mediated cyclization. Several inhibitors displayed good to excellent activity toward HIV-1 protease and significant antiviral activity in MT-4 cells. Compound 4k has shown an enzyme Ki of 40 pM and antiviral IC50 of 31 nM. Inhibitors 4k and 4l were evaluated against a panel of highly resistant multidrug-resistant HIV-1 variants, and their fold-changes in antiviral activity were similar to those observed with darunavir. Additionally, two X-ray crystal structures of the related inhibitors 4a and 4e bound to HIV-1 protease were determined at 1.22 and 1.30 Å resolution, respectively, and revealed important interactions in the active site that have not yet been explored.

Synthesis and antibacterial activity evaluation of novel biaryloxazolidinone analogues containing a hydrazone moiety as promising antibacterial agents.

A series of linezolid analogues containing a hydrazone moiety were designed, synthesized and evaluated for their antibacterial activity. Most compounds exhibited more potent antibacterial activity against S.aureus, MRSA, MSSA, LREF and VRE pathogens as compared with linezolid and radezolid. Compounds 9a, 9c, 9f, 9g, 10m and 10t were more potent against tested clinical isolates of MRSA, MSSA, VRE and LREF as compared to linezolid. Compound 9a exhibited comparable activity with linezolid against human MAO-A for safety evaluation and showed moderate metabolism in human liver microsome. The most promising compound 9a showed remarkable antibacterial activity against S.aureus, MRSA, MSSA, LREF and VRE pathogens with MIC value of 0.0675 mg/mL, respectively, which was 15- to 30-fold more potent than linezolid.