Target verification of artesunate-related antiviral drugs: Assessing the role of mitochondrial and regulatory proteins by click chemistry and fluorescence labeling

International audienc

Synthesis and study of cytotoxic activity of 1,2,4-trioxane- and egonol-derived hybrid molecules against Plasmodium falciparum and multidrug-resistant human leukemia cells

WOS: 000333775600039PubMed ID: 24561670Malaria and cancer cause the death of millions of people every year. To combat these two diseases, it is important that new pharmaceutically active compounds have the ability to overcome multidrug resistance in cancer and Plasmodium falciparum strains. In search of effective anti-cancer and anti-malaria hybrids that possess improved properties compared to their parent compounds, a series of novel 1,2,4-trioxane-based hybrids incorporating egonol and/or ferrocene fragments were synthesized and tested in vitro against P. falciparum strains, CCRF CEM cells and the multidrug-resistant P-glycoprotein-over-expressing CEM/ADR5000 cells. The most active compounds against P. falciparum strains were artesunic acid homodimers 12 and 13 (IC50 of 0.32 and 0.30 nM, respectively), whereas novel hybrids 7 (1,2,4-trioxane ferrocene egonol), 9 (1,2,4-trioxane ferrocene) and 11 (artesunic acid egonol) showed a remarkable cytotoxicity toward CCRF CEM cells (IC50 of 0.07, 0.25 and 0.18 mu M, respectively). A cooperative and synergistic effect of the three moieties 1,2,4-trioxane, ferrocene and egonol in hybrid molecule 7 is significant and is obviously stronger than in hybrids 9 (1,2,4-trioxane ferrocene) and 11 (artesunic acid egonol), which comprises of only two of the three considered parent compounds. Interestingly, hybrid 9 containing a 1,2,4-trioxane and a ferrocene fragment has shown to be the most effective among the studied hybrids against the tested multidrug-resistant leukemia CEM/ADR5000 cells (IC50 of 0.57 mu M) and possesses a degree of cross-resistance of 2.34. (C) 2014 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.Dr. Hertha & Helmut Schmauser-Stiftung; German Academic Exchange Service DAADDeutscher Akademischer Austausch Dienst (DAAD)We are grateful to the "Dr. Hertha & Helmut Schmauser-Stiftung" for research support. We thank Professor Andriy Mokhir for pointing out ferrocene-based anti-cancer agents. We thank Mr. Bhasem Gharib (University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, Germany) for the supply with ferrocene monocarboxylic acid and ferrocene dicarboxylic acid.; Financial support by the German Academic Exchange Service DAAD (doctoral research fellowship for Aysun capci Karagoz) is gratefully acknowledged