Characterisation and screening of antimicrobial essential oil components against clinically important antibiotic-resistant bacteria using thin layer chromatography-direct bioautography hyphenated with GC-MS, LC-MS and NMR.

INTRODUCTION: The antimicrobial activity of many essential oils (EOs) is well established, indicating that EOs may be a source of compounds for antimicrobial drug development. Thin layer chromatography-direct bioautography (TLC-DB) can quickly identify antimicrobial components in complex mixtures and can be applied to the screening of EOs for lead compounds. OBJECTIVES: This study aimed to identify antimicrobial components of oregano, rosewood and cumin EOs against antibiotic-sensitive and -resistant bacteria using TLC-DB and a multi-faceted approach of GC-MS, LC-MS and NMR techniques to characterise bioactive compounds. The study also aimed to quantify the antimicrobial activity of bioactive compounds in order to evaluate their potential for the development of therapies against antibiotic-resistant bacteria. MATERIALS AND METHODS: EOs were eluted on TLC plates and sprayed with a suspension of Staphylococcus aureus, Enterococcus faecium, Escherichia coli or Pseudomonas aeruginosa (antibiotic-sensitive and -resistant isolates). Zones of inhibition, visualised with iodonitrotetrazolium chloride, were subject to GC-MS, LC-MS and NMR to characterise the bioactive compounds. RESULTS: Seven compounds were identified from the three EOs using GC-MS, while LC-MS and NMR failed to detect the presence of any further non-volatile or heat labile compounds. Carvacrol was most antimicrobial compound identified, with minimum inhibitory concentrations ranging 0.99-31.62 mM. CONCLUSION: The identified antimicrobial compounds present in oregano, rosewood and cumin EOs including carvacrol may be candidates for the development of novel antimicrobial therapies against antibiotic-resistant bacteria.

Therapeutic and cytotoxic effects of the novel antipsoriasis codrug, naproxyl-dithranol, on HaCaT cells.

A novel topical codrug, naproxyl-dithranol (Nap-DTH), in which dithranol and naproxen are linked via an ester in a 1:1 ratio to form a single chemical entity, was synthesized. The antiproliferative, anti-inflammatory and toxic effects of Nap-DTH were assessed, at the cellular level, using various in vitro methods. Cultured HaCaT keratinocytes were treated with Nap-DTH, and the cellular effects were compared with those of the parent compounds, individually and as a 1:1 mixture of naproxen:dithranol to mimic 1:1 in situ liberation from Nap-DTH. The results demonstrate that Nap-DTH did not modify proliferation and only exhibited slight toxic effects after 24 h at concentrations >21 µM. At a lower concentration (3.4 µM), Nap-DTH did not alter cell proliferation or inflammation, which suggests that the codrug is therapeutically inert. Relating to this, the 1:1 mixture of naproxen:dithranol exhibited the lowest toxic effect and the highest antiproliferative effect on HaCaT keratinocytes compared to dithranol at the same concentration. Moreover, the 1:1 mixture exhibited a reduced inflammatory effect compared to dithranol alone, as reflected by the upregulation of cyclooxygenase-2 by 45% and 136%, respectively. In spite of the 1:1 mixture showing a greater downregulation of Ki-67 and a 2-fold reduction of proliferating cell nuclear antigen (both cellular markers of proliferation) than dithranol, dithranol showed a much greater induction of cleaved caspase-3 protein expression (upregulated by 287%, compared to 85% for the 1:1 mixture). This suggests that when dithranol was administered with naproxen, inhibition of cell growth plays a more important role in the antiproliferation effects than the induction of apoptotic cell death. These results confirm that the codrug would lead to a better therapeutic profile and fewer adverse effects compared to its parent compounds.

Topical delivery of a naproxen-dithranol co-drug: in vitro skin penetration, permeation, and staining.

PURPOSE: This work probed the topical delivery and skin-staining properties of a novel co-drug, naproxyl-dithranol (Nap-DTH), which comprises anti-inflammatory (naproxen) and anti-proliferative (dithranol) moieties. METHOD: Freshly excised, full-thickness porcine ear skin was dosed with saturated solutions of the compounds. After 24 h, the skin was recovered and used to prepare comparative depth profiles by the tape-stripping technique and to examine the extent of skin staining. RESULTS: Depth profiles showed that Nap-DTH led to a 5-fold increase in drug retention in the skin compared to dithranol. The application of Nap-DTH also demonstrated improved stability, resulting in lower levels of dithranol degradation products in the skin. Furthermore, significantly less naproxen from hydrolysed Nap-DTH permeated into the receptor phase compared to naproxen when applied alone (0.08 ± 0.03 nmol cm(-)² and 180 ± 60 nmol cm(-)², respectively). Moreover, the reduced staining of the skin was very apparent for Nap-DTH compared to dithranol. CONCLUSIONS: Topical delivery of Nap-DTH not only improves the delivery of naproxen and dithranol, but also reduces unwanted effects of the parent moieties, in particular the skin staining, which is a major issue concerning the use of dithranol.

Protein-protein interactions as targets for small-molecule therapeutics in cancer.

Small-molecule inhibition of the direct protein-protein interactions that mediate many important biological processes is an emerging and challenging area in drug design. Conventional drug design has mainly focused on the inhibition of a single protein, usually an enzyme or receptor, since these proteins often contain a clearly defined ligand-binding site with which a small-molecule drug can be designed to interact. Designing a small molecule to bind to a protein-protein interface and subsequently inhibit the interaction poses several challenges, including the initial identification of suitable protein-protein interactions, the surface area of the interface (it is often large), and the location of 'hot spots' (small regions suitable for drug binding). This article reviews the general approach to designing inhibitors of protein-protein interactions, and then focuses on recent advances in the use of small molecules targeted against a variety of protein-protein interactions that have therapeutic potential for cancer.

Design, synthesis and in vitro degradation of a novel co-drug for the treatment of psoriasis.

Psoriasis is a common, chronic and relapsing inflammatory skin disease. It affects approximately 2% of the western population and has no cure. Combination therapy for psoriasis often proves more efficacious and better tolerated than monotherapy with a single drug. Combination therapy could be administered in the form of a co-drug, where two or more therapeutic compounds active against the same condition are linked by a cleavable covalent bond. Similar to the pro-drug approach, the liberation of parent moieties post-administration, by enzymatic and/or chemical mechanisms, is a pre-requisite for effective treatment. In this study, a series of co-drugs incorporating dithranol in combination with one of several non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, both useful for the treatment of psoriasis, were designed, synthesized and evaluated. An ester co-drug comprising dithranol and naproxen in a 1:1 stoichiometric ratio was determined to possess the optimal physicochemical properties for topical delivery. The co-drug was fully hydrolyzed in vitro by porcine liver esterase within four hours. When incubated with homogenized porcine skin, 9.5% of the parent compounds were liberated after 24 h, suggesting in situ esterase-mediated cleavage of the co-drug would occur within the skin. The kinetics of the reaction revealed first order kinetics, Vmax = 10.3 µM·min-1 and Km = 65.1 µM. The co-drug contains a modified dithranol chromophore that was just 37% of the absorbance of dithranol at 375 nm and suggests reduced skin/clothes staining. Overall, these findings suggest that the dithranol-naproxen co-drug offers an attractive, novel approach for the treatment of psoriasis.

Synthesis and evaluation of novel anti-proliferative pyrroloazepinone and indoloazepinone oximes derived from the marine natural product hymenialdisine.

The tetrahydroazepinone pharmacophore is a component of many interesting compounds, including several marine natural products, with anti-cancer properties. The synthesis and biological evaluation of a novel series of pyrroloazepinone and indoloazepinone oximes is reported. These compounds showed promising growth inhibition activity against four human cancer cell lines but did not significantly inhibit the cell cycle regulator cyclin dependent kinase 2. The most active compounds in this series displayed improved anti-proliferative activity over the related synthetic indoloazepine kenpaullone. The structure activity relationships exhibited by the azepinone pharmacophore suggests several novel lead compounds for anti-cancer drug discovery.

Potentiation of cytotoxic drug activity in human tumour cell lines, by amine-substituted 2-arylbenzimidazole-4-carboxamide PARP-1 inhibitors.

The synthesis and biological evaluation of a new series of amine-substituted 2-arylbenzimidazole-4-carboxamide inhibitors of the DNA-repair enzyme poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase-1 (PARP-1) is reported. The introduction of an amine substituent at the 2-aryl position is not detrimental to activity, with most inhibitors exhibiting K(i) values for PARP-1 inhibition in the low nanomolar range. Two compounds in this series were found to potentiate the cytotoxicity of the DNA-methylating agent temozolomide by 4-5-fold in a human colorectal cancer cell line.