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PubMed2002

QSAR studies on antimalarial substituted phenyl analogues and their N(omega)-oxides.

A quantitative structure--activity relationship (QSAR) study on a series of substituted phenyl analogues 5-[(7-chloro-4-quinolinyl)amino]-3-[(alkylamino)methyl](1,1'-biphenyl)-2-ols and their N(omega)-oxides was made using various combinations of electronic and topological parameters. Several statistically significant regression expressions were obtained using multiple regression analyses. These regressions may be considered as mathematical models for investigating antimalarial activities of the compounds under present study. The antimalarial activity mechanism was investigated using combinations of E(L) and E(H), independently with other molecular descriptors.

Antimalarials↗
PubMed2003

Artemisinin derivatives bearing Mannich base group: synthesis and antimalarial activity.

Novel artemisinin derivatives bearing Mannich base group were prepared and tested for their antimalarial activity. These water-soluble artemisinin derivatives were more stable than sodium artesunate and few compounds were found to be more active against Plasmodium berghei in mice than artesunic acid by oral administration. Two most potent derivatives 17b and 17d were examined for their antimalarial activity against Plasmodium knowlesi in rhesus monkeys.

Animals↗
PubMed1997

Conformational analysis of the antimalarial agent quinidine.

Quinidine is an active antimalarial compound extracted from the bark of Cinchona trees. The activity differences among structurally related molecules appears to depend on the absolute stereochemistry of some functional groups, a result that stimulated a detailed conformational analysis of these molecules of biological interest. In the present study, the potential energy surface (PES) for the antimalarial agent quinidine (C20H24O2N2) has been comprehensively investigated using the molecular mechanics (MM) and quantum mechanical semiempirical AM1 and PM3 methods. Six distinct minimum energy conformations were located on the multidimensional PES and also characterized as true minima through harmonic frequency analysis. The relative stabilities and thermodynamic properties are reported. The coexistence of different conformers is discussed for the first time in the literature based on the transition state (TS) structures located on the PES for the quinidine molecule. The theoretical results reported in the present study are in agreement with the experimental proposal, based on NMR data, that there are two conformations existing in solution for the quinidine molecule.

Antimalarials↗
PubMed1999

Synthesis and antimalarial activity in vitro of potential metabolites of ferrochloroquine and related compounds.

In man, the two major metabolites of the antimalarial drug chloroquine (CQ) are monodesethylchloroquine (DECQ) and didesethylchloroquine (di-DECQ). By analogy with CQ, the synthesis and the in vitro tests of some amino derivatives of ferrochloroquine (FQ), a ferrocenic analogue of CQ which are presumed to be the oxidative metabolites of FQ, are reported. Desmethylferrochloroquine 1a and didesmethylferrochloroquine 2 would be more potent against schizontocides than CQ in vitro against two strains (HB3 and Dd2) of Plasmodium falciparum. Other secondary amino derivatives have been prepared and proved to be active as antimalarial agents in vitro, too.

Animals↗
PubMed2000

Potent in vivo antimalarial activity of 3,15-di-O-acetylbruceolide against Plasmodium berghei infection in mice.

The antimalarial activity of the O-acylated bruceolide derivative, 3,15-di-O-acetylbruceolide, was evaluated against Plasmodium berghei in vivo. The concentration of 3,15-di-O-acetylbruceolide required for 50% suppression (ED50) of P. berghei in mice was 0.46 +/- 0.06 mg/kg/day, whereas bruceolide was only half as effective as 3,15-di-O-acetylbruceolide. Two antimalarial drugs used clinically, chloroquine and artemisinin, demonstrated only low activity corresponding to 1/4 and 1/12 of the ED50 value of 3,15-di-O-acetylbruceolide, respectively. These results may be helpful in the design of better chemotherapeutic bruceolides against falciparum malaria.

Animals↗
PubMed2005

Blood schizontocidal activity of azithromycin and its combination with alpha/beta arteether against multi-drug resistant Plasmodium yoelii nigeriensis, a novel MDR parasite model for antimalarial screening.

Many different drug-resistant lines of rodent malaria are available as screening models. It is obligatory to screen new compounds for antimalarial activity against a series of resistant lines in order to identify a compound with potential for the treatment of multi-drug resistant (MDR) malaria infections. Instead of using a battery of resistant lines, a single MDR Plasmodium yoelii nigeriensis strain that shows a wide spectrum of drug resistance to high doses of chloroquine, mepacrine, amodiaquine, mefloquine, quinine, quinidine, halofantrine as well as tetracyclines, fluoroquinolines and erythromycin, was used to assess the blood schizontocidal efficacy of a new macrolide azithromycin and other antibiotics. The present study shows that only azithromycin has the potential to control an MDR P. y. nigeriensis infection in Swiss mice, provided the treatment with a dose of 50-100 mg/kg/day by oral route is continued for a period of 7 days. Tetracycline, oxytetracycline, doxycyline, erythromycin, ciprofloxacin and norfloxacin, although active in vitro, failed to protect the mice. Tetracycline, ciprofloxacin and norfloxacin combinations with chloroquine did not control the infection. Additionally, the antimalarial efficacy of azithromycin can be potentiated with the addition of arteether, which is an ethyl ether derivative of artemisinin. A total (100%) curative effect has been obtained with a shorter regimen of 4 days only.

Animals↗
PubMed2006

Complex dynamics and stability of resistance to antimalarial drugs.

A succession of antimalarial drugs has been deployed to treat human falciparum malaria but each has, in turn, been nullified by the spread of drug resistance. The consensus view has always been that, once present, resistance will inevitably rapidly increase to 100%. However, recent field evidence has shown this is not inevitable, and that drug resistance may initially spread and then stabilize at relatively low frequencies. It is proposed that intense competition between separate malaria clones co-infecting the same human can generate complex dynamics capable of explaining this observation. Standard population genetic analysis confirms this assertion. The dynamics underlying the evolution of antimalarial resistance may therefore be much more complex than previously realized, and can resolve the apparent paradox between field data and the underlying theory of the evolution of resistance. This explanation is novel and the results are equally applicable to other parasitic species where multiple infections of the same host are common.

Animals↗
PubMed2002

From mechanistic studies on artemisinin derivatives to new modular antimalarial drugs.

In the first part of this account, the antimalarial drug artemisinin is presented, and the current hypotheses on the mechanism of action of this endoperoxide-based drug are reviewed. The alkylating ability of artemisinin and synthetic analogues toward heme related to their antimalarial efficacy are underlined. Some possible ways for discovery of new drugs, especially the design of trioxaquines, new active molecules recently patented that have been prepared by covalent attachment of a trioxane residue having alkylating ability to a quinoline moiety known to easily penetrate within infected erythrocytes, are presented.

Alkylating Agents↗
PubMed2004

The antimalarial drug resistance protein Plasmodium falciparum chloroquine resistance transporter binds chloroquine.

Recently, mutations in the novel polytopic integral membrane protein PfCRT were shown to cause chloroquine resistance (CQR) in the malarial parasite Plasmodium falciparum. PfCRT is not a member of the well-known family of ABC proteins that have previously been associated with other drug resistance phenomena. Thus, the mechanism(s) whereby mutant PfCRT molecules confer antimalarial drug resistance is (are) unknown. Previously, we succeeded in overexpressing PfCRT to high levels in Pichia pastoris yeast by synthesizing a codon-optimized version of the pfcrt gene. Using purified membranes and inside-out plasma membrane vesicles (ISOV) isolated from strains harboring either wild-type or CQR-associated mutant PfCRT, we now show that under deenergized conditions the PfCRT protein specifically binds the antimalarial drug chloroquine (CQ) with a K(D) near 400 nM but does not measurably bind the related drug quinine (QN) at physiologically relevant concentrations. Transport studies using ISOV show that QN is passively accumulated as expected on the basis of previous measurement of the ISOV DeltapH for the different strains. However, passive accumulation of CQ is lower than expected for ISOV harboring mutant PfCRT, despite higher DeltapH for these ISOV.

Animals↗
PubMed1999

A novel endogenous antimalarial: Fe(II)-protoporphyrin IX alpha (heme) inhibits hematin polymerization to beta-hematin (malaria pigment) and kills malaria parasites.

The polymerization of hemoglobin-derived ferric-protoporphyrin IX [Fe(III)PPIX] to inert hemozoin (malaria pigment) is a crucial and unique process for intraerythrocytic plasmodia to prevent heme toxicity and thus a good target for new antimalarials. Quinoline drugs, i.e., chloroquine, and non-iron porphyrins have been shown to block polymerization by forming electronic pi-pi interactions with heme monomers. Here, we report the identification of ferrous-protoporphyrin IX [Fe(II)PPIX] as a novel endogenous anti-malarial. Fe(II)PPIX molecules, released from the proteolysis of hemoglobin, are first oxidized and then polymerized to hemozoin. We obtained Fe(II)PPIX on preparative scale by electrochemical reduction of Fe(III)PPIX, and the reaction was monitored by cyclic voltammetry. Polymerization assays at acidic pH were conducted with the resulting Fe(II)PPIX using a spectrophotometric microassay of heme polymerization adapted to anaerobic conditions and the products characterized by infrared spectroscopy. Fe(II)PPIX (a) did not polymerize and (b) produced a dose-dependent inhibition of Fe(III)PPIX polymerization (IC(50) = 0.4 molar equiv). Moreover, Fe(II)PPIX produced by chemical reduction with thiol-containing compounds gave similar results: a dose-dependent inhibition of heme polymerization was observed using either L-cysteine, N-acetylcysteine, or DL-homocysteine, but not with L-cystine. Cyclic voltammetry confirmed that the inhibition of heme polymerization was due to the Fe(II)PPIX molecules generated by the thiol-mediated reduction of Fe(III)PPIX. These results point to Fe(II)PPIX as a potential endogenous antimalarial and to Fe(III)PPIX reduction as a potential new pharmacological target.

Animals↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Parallel synthesis and antimalarial screening of a 4-aminoquinoline library.

Due to growing problems with drug resistance, there is an outstanding need for new, cost-effective drugs for the treatment of malaria. The 4-aminoquinolines have provided a number of useful antimalarials, and Plasmodium falciparum, the causative organism for the most deadly form of human malaria, is generally slow to develop resistance to these drugs. Therefore, diverse screening libraries of quinolines continue to be useful for antimalarial drug discovery. We report herein the development of an efficient method for producing libraries of 4-aminoquinolines variant in the side chain portion of the molecule. The effects of these substitutions were evaluated by screening this library for activity against P. falciparum, revealing four potent compounds active against drug-resistant strains.

Antimalarials↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Modeling antimalarial activity: application of Kinetic Energy Density Quantum Similarity Measures as descriptors in QSAR.

In this work, is studied the application, within a quantum similarity framework, of the recently described Kinetic Energy Density Function in the evaluation of the antimalarial activity. First, this new type of Density Function is briefly presented from its theoretical foundations, and its inclusion in the molecular quantum similarity is discussed afterward. The application of Kinetic Energy-based Quantum Similarity Measures to QSAR is tested with 2 molecular sets composed of artemisinin derivatives, in which the 50% inhibition of synthesis and reduction of hidrofolate (IC50) in different Plasmodium falciparum clones are analyzed. Satisfactory correlations are obtained for all antimalarial activities in all studied molecular sets. Molecular Quantum Similarity analysis provides a consistent, unbiased, and homogeneous set of molecular descriptors and is a feasible alternative to the use of classical physicochemical descriptors.

Antimalarials↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Comparative protein modeling of 1-deoxy-D-xylulose-5-phosphate reductoisomerase enzyme from Plasmodium falciparum: a potential target for antimalarial drug discovery.

Plasmodium falciparum 1-deoxy-D-xylulose-5-phosphate reductoisomerase (Pf-DXR) is a potential target for antimalarial chemotherapy. The three-dimensional model (3D) of this enzyme was determined by means of comparative modeling through multiple alignment followed by intensive optimization, minimization, and validation. The resulting model demonstrates a reasonable topology as gauged from the Ramachandran plot and acceptable three-dimensional structure compatibility as assessed by the Profiles-3D score. The modeled monomeric subunit consists of three domains: (1) N-terminal NADPH binding domain, (2) connective or linker domain (with most of the active site residues located in this domain), and (3) a C-terminal domain. This structure proved to be consistent with known DXR crystal structures from other species. The predicted active site compared favorably with those of the templates and appears to have an active site with a highly conserved architecture. Additionally, the model explains several site-directed mutagenesis data. Besides using several protein structure-checking programs to validate the model, a set of known inhibitors of DXR were also docked into the active site of the modeled Pf-DXR. The docked scores correlated reasonably well with experimental pIC50 values with a regression coefficient (R2) equal to 0.84. Results of the current study should prove useful in the early design and development of inhibitors by either de novo drug design or virtual screening of large small-molecule databases leading to development of new antimalarial agents.

Aldose-Ketose Isomerases↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Correlating the molecular electrostatic potentials of some organic peroxides with their antimalarial activities.

The molecular electrostatic potentials (MEPs) of artemisinin (also known as qinghaosu), yingzhaosu A, and some synthetic analogues have been calculated and studied as a means of distinguishing between high and low antimalarial activity. To facilitate comparison, the dimensionality of the MEP was reduced by Kohonen Neural Network transforms. The reduction revealed that peroxides exhibiting high antimalarial activity are characterized by a continuous strip of negative electric potential surrounding the molecule, whereas peroxides of lesser activity show a broken strip.

Animals↗
PubMed1995

Structure-activity relationships of lactone ring-opened analogs of the antimalarial 1,2,4-trioxane artemisinin.

1,2,4-Trioxane benzylic ethers 8a-e were prepared as simplified, tricyclic versions of the clinically used tetracyclic antimalarial drug artemisinin (1). Five additional artemisinin analogs (9-11) were prepared. Neither water solubility (analogs 8e and 11b) nor chelating ability (analogs 9 and 10), however, produced trioxanes of especially high in vitro antimalarial activity. Trioxane fluorobenzyl ether 8b is the most active in this series (more active than artemisinin) against Plasmodium falciparum parasites in vitro, with substantial activity also in mice infected with Plasmodium berghei parasites and with 10 times higher activity than artemisinin (1) in killing immature P. falciparum gametocytes.

Animals↗
PubMed2000

Synthesis and antimalarial activity of sixteen dispiro-1,2,4, 5-tetraoxanes: alkyl-substituted 7,8,15,16-tetraoxadispiro[5.2.5. 2]hexadecanes.

Sixteen alkyl-substituted dispiro-1,2,4,5-tetraoxanes (7,8,15, 16-tetraoxadispiro[5.2.5.2]hexadecanes) were synthesized to explore dispiro-1,2,4,5-tetraoxane SAR and to identify tetraoxanes with better oral antimalarial activity than prototype tetraoxane 1 (WR 148999). The tetraoxanes were prepared either by peroxidation of the corresponding cyclohexanone derivatives in H(2)SO(4)/CH(3)CN or by ozonolysis of the corresponding cyclohexanone methyl oximes. Those tetraoxanes with alkyl substituents at the 1 and 10 positions were formed as single stereoisomers, whereas the five tetraoxanes formed without the stereochemical control provided by alkyl groups at the 1 and 10 positions were isolated as mixtures of diastereomers. Three of the sixteen tetraoxanes were inactive (IC(50)'s > 1000 nM), but five (2, 6, 10, 11, 12) had IC(50)'s between 10 and 30 nM against the chloroquine-sensitive D6 and chloroquine-resistant W2 clones of Plasmodium falciparum compared to corresponding IC(50)'s of 55 and 32 nM for 1 and 8.4 and 7.3 nM for artemisinin. We suggest that tetraoxanes 13, 16, and 17 were inactive and tetraoxanes 4 and 7 were weakly active due to steric effects preventing or hindering peroxide bond access to parasite heme. Tetraoxanes 1, 10, 11, and 14, along with artemisinin and arteether as controls, were administered po b.i.d. (128 mg/kg/day) to P. berghei-infected mice on days 3, 4, and 5 post-infection. At this dose, tetraoxanes 10, 11, and 14 cured between 40% and 60% of the infected animals. In comparison, artemisinin and tetraoxane 1 produced no cures, whereas arteether cured 100% of the infected animals. There was no apparent relationship between tetraoxane structure and in vitro neurotoxicity, nor was there any correlation between antimalarial activity and neurotoxicity for these seventeen tetraoxanes.

Alkanes↗
PubMed1995

Synthesis, characterization, and antimalarial activity of the glucuronides of the hydroxylated metabolites of arteether.

The hydroxylated metabolites (log P 2.6-2.7) of beta-arteether (1) in rat liver microsomes that retain their endoperoxide moiety showed comparable in vitro antimalarial activity to that of the parent drug arteether (log P = 3.89). The search for analogs of artemisinin (7) more suitable for intravenous use led to the synthesis of the glucuronide conjugates of the phase I hydroxylated metabolites of arteether which were found to have good water solubility, yet retained moderate lipophilicity (log P = 0.6-1.8). While a strong correlation was observed between the log P value of the glucuronides, the phase I metabolites, and the parent compound, it was found that 9 beta-hydroxyarteetherglucuronide (26) was the most active and the most polar (log P = 0.61) of the glucuronides. While the in vitro antimalarial activity of 26 (IC50 = 89.3 ng/mL) was found to be much less than that for the parent compound, the activity of 26 was within a range that would have potential therapeutic use.

Animals↗
PubMed1995

Antimalarial activity of novel ring-contracted artemisinin derivatives.

Bromoacetal 2 undergoes a novel ring-contracted reaction to give the aldehyde 3 in the presence of DBU or triethylamine. The aldehyde 3 is reduced to the alcohol 4 and oxidized to the carboxylic acid 5. The alcohol 4 reacts with dihydroartemisinin to give the two diastereoisomers 38 and 39. All the compounds were tested for antimalarial activity in mice infected with chloroquine sensitive Plasmodium berghei. If the activity of a compound was comparable to that of the standard compound, such as arteether, it was tested against chloroquine resistant NS strain infection in mice. Initially the compounds were administered subcutaneously, and if found to be active, they were tested by oral route. The antimalarial activity of compounds 19, 38, and 39 was found to be comparable to that of arteether when tested in K-173-infected mice. They were also active against chloroquine resistant NS strain infection in mice.

Administration, Oral↗