6 research outputs found
Generation of the First Structure-Based Pharmacophore Model Containing a Selective “Zinc Binding Group” Feature to Identify Potential Glyoxalase-1 Inhibitors
Within this study, a unique 3D structure-based pharmacophore model of the enzyme glyoxalase-1 (Glo-1) has been revealed. Glo-1 is considered a zinc metalloenzyme in which the inhibitor binding with zinc atom at the active site is crucial. To our knowledge, this is the first pharmacophore model that has a selective feature for a “zinc binding group” which has been customized within the structure-based pharmacophore model of Glo-1 to extract ligands that possess functional groups able to bind zinc atom solely from database screening. In addition, an extensive 2D similarity search using three diverse similarity techniques (Tanimoto, Dice, Cosine) has been performed over the commercially available “Zinc Clean Drug-Like Database” that contains around 10 million compounds to help find suitable inhibitors for this enzyme based on known inhibitors from the literature. The resultant hits were mapped over the structure based pharmacophore and the successful hits were further docked using three docking programs with different pose fitting and scoring techniques (GOLD, LibDock, CDOCKER). Nine candidates were suggested to be novel Glo-1 inhibitors containing the “zinc binding group” with the highest consensus scoring from docking
Synthesis of C3′ Modified Nucleosides for Selective Generation of the C3′-Deoxy-3′-thymidinyl Radical: A Proposed Intermediate in LEE Induced DNA Damage
DNA damage pathways induced by low-energy electrons (LEEs)
are
believed to involve the formation of 2-deoxyribose radicals. These
radicals, formed at the C3′ and C5′ positions of nucleotides,
are the result of cleavage of the C–O phosphodiester bond through
transfer of LEEs to the phosphate group of DNA oligomers from the
nucleobases. A considerable amount of information has been obtained
to illuminate the identity of the unmodified oligonucleotide products
formed through this process. There exists, however, a paucity of information
as to the nature of the modified lesions formed from degradation of
these sugar radicals. To determine the identity of the damage products
formed via the 2′,3′-dideoxy-C3′-thymidinyl radical
(C3′<sub>dephos</sub> sugar radical), phenyl selenide and acyl
modified sugar and nucleoside derivatives have been synthesized, and
their suitability as photochemical precursors of the radical of interest
has been evaluated. Upon photochemical activation of C3′-derivatized
nucleosides in the presence of the hydrogen atom donor tributyltin
hydride, 2′,3′-dideoxythymidine is formed indicating
the selective generation of the C3′<sub>dephos</sub> sugar
radical. These precursors will make the identification and quantification
of products of DNA damage derived from radicals generated by LEEs
possible
Novel Chrysin-De-Allyl PAC-1 Hybrid Analogues as Anticancer Compounds: Design, Synthesis, and Biological Evaluation
New chrysin-De-allyl-Pac-1 hybrid analogues, tethered with variable heterocyclic systems (4a–4o), were rationally designed and synthesized. The target compounds were screened for in vitro antiproliferative efficacy in the triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) cell line, MDA-MB-231, and normal human mammary epithelial cells (HMECs). Two compounds, 4g and 4i, had the highest efficacy and selectivity towards MDA-MB-231 cells, and thus, were further evaluated by mechanistic experiments. The results indicated that both compounds 4g and 4i induced apoptosis by (1) inducing cell cycle arrest at the G2 phase in MDA-MB-231 cells, and (2) activating the intrinsic apoptotic pathways in a concentration-dependent manner. Physicochemical characterizations of these compounds suggested that they can be further optimized as potential anticancer compounds for TNBC cells. Overall, our results suggest that 4g and 4i could be suitable leads for developing novel compounds to treat TNBC