The 10 most-cited articles in Archiv der Pharmazie, 2018

Fluoroquinolones remain one of the most important kind of antibacterial agents used nowadays. The emergence of more virulent and resistant strains of bacteria by the development of either mutated DNA-binding proteins or efflux pump mechanism for drugs is considered the main problem associated with the therapeutic use of these drugs. This situation participated in pushing researchers to design new fluoroquinolone derivatives, mainly with different substituents at C-7 to withstand these resistant strains of bacteria and to obtain a wider spectrum of activity including activity against anaerobic organisms. Conjugation of fluoroquinolones with substitutions such as 1,2,4-triazoles, alkyl oximes, flavonoids, aryl furans, benzofuroxans, metronidazoles or even other antibiotics such as neomycin-B produced derivatives that have a superior and wider spectrum of activity and better resistance than the classical fluoroquinolone agents. Addition of a hydroxamic acid moiety to fluoroquinolones also increased the activity against Proteus mirabilis, which represents one of the most resistant…

Abstract Aldose reductase converts glucose to sorbitol in the polyol pathway. It is an important enzyme to prevent diabetic complications. In this study, we studied the inhibitory effects of bromophenol derivatives on aldose reductase (AR), α‐glucosidase, and α‐amylase enzymes. In the bromophenols series, compound 1f showed the maximum inhibition effect against AR with a Ki value of 0.05 ± 0.01 μM, while compound 1d showed the lowest inhibition effect against AR with a Ki value of 1.13 ± 0.99 μM. In addition, α‐amylase from porcine pancreas and α‐glucosidase from Saccharomyces cerevisiae were used as enzymes. In this study, all compounds were tested for the inhibition of the α‐glucosidase enzyme and demonstrated efficient inhibition profiles with Ki values in the range of 43.62 ± 5.28 to 144.37 ± 16.37 nM against α‐glucosidase. Additionally, these compounds were tested against the α‐amylase enzyme, which determined an effective inhibition profile with IC50 values in the range of 9.63–91.47 nM. These compounds can be selective inhibitors of AR, α‐glucosidase, and α‐amylase enzymes as…

Abstract A series of novel phloroglucinol derivatives were designed, synthesized, characterized spectroscopically and tested for their inhibitory activity against selected metabolic enzymes, including α‐glycosidase, acetylcholinesterase (AChE), butyrylcholinesterase (BChE), and human carbonic anhydrase I and II (hCA I and II). These compounds displayed nanomolar inhibition levels and showed Ki values of 1.14–3.92 nM against AChE, 0.24–1.64 nM against BChE, 6.73–51.10 nM against α‐glycosidase, 1.80–5.10 nM against hCA I, and 1.14–5.45 nM against hCA II.

Abstract A series of substituteed pyrazol‐4‐yl‐diazene derivatives were found to be effective inhibitors against α‐glycosidase, cytosolic carbonic anhydrase I and II isoforms (hCA I and II), butyrylcholinesterase (BChE), and acetylcholinesterase (AChE) with Ki values in the range of 33.72 ± 7.93 to 90.56 ± 27.52 nM for α‐glycosidase, 1.06 ± 0.16 to 9.83 ± 0.74 nM for hCA I, 0.68 ± 0.12 to 7.16 ± 1.14 nM for hCA II, 44.66 ± 10.06 to 78.34 ± 17.83 nM for AChE, and 50.36 ± 13.88 to 88.36 ± 20.03 nM for BChE, respectively. Recently, inhibition of these metabolic enzymes has been considered as a promising factor for pharmacologic intervention in a diversity of disturbances, such as diabetes, glaucoma, obesity, epilepsy, cancer, and neurodegenerative diseases.

Aromatic heterocycles with basic nitrogen atoms as well as carboxylic acid derivatives are the dominating chemical space in the universe of drug-like molecules. These established and exceedingly evaluated structural motifs have to be combined with elements of diversity in order to chart less well-explored galaxies of chemical space and to be able to tackle seemingly undruggable targets. Flat scaffolds should be replaced by shapely molecular cores. In this context, it has been unheeded that phenyl rings in diaryl sulfides are less co-planar than in ethers and that the metabolic interconnection of sulfides and sulfoxides offers advantages that are unalike from the chemistry of amines and N-oxides in the CHN-O world. Moreover, σ-hole potentials increase with the polarizability of the atom N < P < O < S and do not only play a role in long-time overlooked halogen bonds. Examples for λ2, λ4, and λ6 S-based functionalities related to improved solubility, reduced drug resistance, linkers in drug conjugates, drug-targeting to parasites, and as basis for drug monitoring in sports are given…

Benzothiazole, a fused heterocyclic moiety, has attracted synthetic and medicinal chemists for good reasons. It is a valuable scaffold that possesses diverse biological activities, such as anticancer, anti-inflammatory, antimicrobial, antiviral, antimalarial, and anticonvulsant effects. This review mainly focusses on the recent research work on the different biological activities of benzothiazole-based compounds.

Abstract meta‐Cyanobenzyl‐substituted N‐heterocyclic carbene (NHC) precursors were synthesized by the reaction of a series of N‐(alkyl)benzimidazolium with 3‐bromomethyl‐benzonitrile. These benzimidazolium salts were characterized by using 1H NMR, 13C NMR, FTIR spectroscopy, and elemental analysis techniques. The molecular and crystal structures of 2f and 2g complexes were obtained by using the single‐crystal X‐ray diffraction method. The derivatives of these novel NHC precursors were effective inhibitors of α‐glycosidase (AG), the cytosolic carbonic anhydrase I and II isoforms (hCA I and II), butyrylcholinesterase (BChE), and acetylcholinesterase (AChE) with Ki values in the range of 1.01–2.12 nM for AG, 189.56–402.44 nM for hCA I, 112.50–277.37 nM for hCA II, 95.45–352.58 nM for AChE, and 132.91–571.18 nM for BChE. In the last years, inhibition of the CA enzyme has been considered as a promising factor for pharmacologic intervention in a diversity of disturbances such as obesity, glaucoma, cancer, and epilepsy.

The design, synthesis, structure-activity relationship, and biological activity of 2,4-thiazolidinedione derivatives as peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-γ (PPAR-γ) modulators for antidiabetic activity are reported. Fifteen 2,4-thiazolidinedione derivatives clubbed with pyrazole moiety were docked into the ligand binding domain of PPAR-γ by the Glide XP module of Schrodinger. Eight derivatives (5a, 5b, 5d, 5f, 5i, 5l, 5n, 5o) having Glide XP scores > -8 as compared to the standard drug, rosiglitazone (Glide XP score = -9.165), showed almost similar interaction with the amino acids such as HIS 449, TYR 473, TYR 327, HIS 323, and SER 289 in the molecular docking studies. These eight derivatives were further screened for PPAR-γ transactivation and in vivo blood glucose lowering activity in the streptozotocin-induced diabetic rat model. Compounds 5o, 5n, 5a, 5i, and 5b showed 52.06, 51.30, 48.65, 43.13, and 40.36% PPAR-γ transactivation as compared to the reference drugs rosiglitazone and pioglitazone with 85.30 and 65.22% transactivation, respectively. The data analysis showed…

Abstract Three series of symmetrical Schiff bases were synthesized from 1,2‐diaminoethane, 1,3‐diaminopropane and 1,4‐diaminobutane and substituted benzaldehydes, and reduced by sodium borohydride to the corresponding benzylic diamines 4–6. All of the compounds obtained were characterized using elemental analysis, FT‐IR, 1H NMR, and 13C NMR spectroscopy. The enzyme inhibitory properties of these compounds were tested and the influence of the alkane chain length and the substituents on the phenyl group on the enzyme inhibition activity were examined. The novel Schiff bases and their amine derivatives (1a–d, 2a–d, 3b–d, 4a–c, 5a–c, 6a, 6c, 6d) were effective inhibitors of the cytosolic carbonic anhydrase I and II isoforms (hCA I and II), and acetylcholinesterase (AChE) with Ki values in the range of 159.43 ± 30.03 to 563.73 ± 115.30 nM for hCA I, 104.88 ± 18.44 to 524.32 ± 95.03 nM for hCA II, and 3.95 ± 0.74 to 30.83 ± 6.81 nM for AChE.

Abstract Sulfamates have a large spectrum of biological activities including enzyme inhibition. Eight sulfamates derived from menthol (2a–h) were synthesized. Also, in the other section of this study, novel sulfamate derivatives of menthol were tested against some metabolic enzymes including acetylcholinesterase (AChE), butyrylcholinesterase (BChE), and carbonic anhydrase I and II enzymes (hCAs I and II). The newly synthesized novel menthol sulfamate and menthol carbonyl sulfamate derivatives showed Ki values in the range of 34.37 ± 8.17 to 53.40 ± 10.61 nM against hCA I, 12.91 ± 4.57 to 38.67 ± 6.22 nM against hCA II, 111.17 ± 52.36 to 522.86 ± 120.08 nM against AChE, and 50.01 ± 11.73 to 109.63 ± 50.08 nM against BChE. As a result, the novel menthol sulfamate and menthol carbonyl sulfamate derivatives can be promising Alzheimer's disease drug candidates and novel hCA I and hCA II enzymes inhibitors.