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Antioxidants have a significant contribution in the cell protection against free radicals which may induce oxidative stress, and permanently damage the cells causing different disorders such as tumors, degenerative diseases, and accelerated aging. Nowadays, a multi-functionalized heterocyclic framework plays an important role in drug development, and it is of great importance in organic synthesis and medicinal chemistry. Encouraged by the bioactivity of the pyrido-dipyrimidine scaffold and vanillin core, herein, we made an effort to thoroughly investigate the antioxidant potential of the vanillin-based pyrido-dipyrimidines A–E to reveal novel promising free radical inhibitors. The structural analysis and the antioxidant action of the investigated molecules were performed in silico by DFT calculations. Studied compounds were screened for their antioxidant capacity using in vitro ABTS and DPPH assays. All the investigated compounds showed remarkable antioxidant activity, especially derivative A exhibiting inhibition of free radicals at the IC50 value (ABTS and DPPH assay 0.1 mg ml−1 and 0.081 mg ml−1, respectively). Compound A has higher TEAC values implying its stronger antioxidant activity compared to a trolox standard. The applied calculation method and in vitro tests confirmed that compound A has a strong potential against free radicals and may be a novel candidate for application in antioxidant therapy.

Considering the urgency of finding a cure for vicious diseases such as tumors, we have synthesized and characterized a small series of new copper(ii) complexes with biologically important ligands such as acylpyruvate. In addition to this, we used another four copper(ii) complexes, with ligands of the same type to examine the antitumor potential. The antitumor potential of the copper(ii) complexes was examined on three tumor cell lines and one normal human cell line using the MTT assay. All seven tested complexes showed very good cytotoxic effects. Two copper complexes that showed the best antitumor potential were selected for further testing that showed the best potential for potential application in the future. The mechanism of activity of these complexes was examined in detail using tests such as cell cycle, ROS level, oxidative DNA damage, and proteins related to hypoxia analysis. In addition, we examined the binding abilities of these complexes with biomolecules (Guo, Ino, 5′-GMP, BSA, and DNA). The results showed that the tested compounds bind strongly to DNA molecules through intercalation. Also, it has been shown that the tested compounds adequately bind to the BSA molecule, which indicates an even greater potential for some future application of these compounds in clinical practice. © 2022 The Royal Society of Chemistry.

Background: In order to make some progress in discovering the more effective way to eliminate ROS which cause the oxidative stress in organism in humans and bearing in mind the fact that ethyl-2-hydroxy-4-aryl(alkyl)-4-oxo-2-butenoates (β-diketonates) belong to a class of biologically active compounds, series of β-diketonates were synthesized, characterized, and tested to evaluate there antioxidant activity. Further, to investigate how coordination to copper(II) ion affects the activity of β-diketonates, appropriate complexes were synthesized and characterized. Methods: All complexes were characterized by UV-Vis, IR, and EPR spectroscopy, MS spectrometry, and elemental analysis. Fluorescence spectroscopic method was used for investigations of the interactions between biomacromolecules (DNA or BSA) and compound 2E. Viscosity measurements and molecular docking study were performed to confirm the mode of interactions between DNA and BSA and compound 2E. Results: Scavenging activity on DPPH radical revealed that compounds 2A, 2B, and 2E possess largest free radical scavenging, comparable to standard while results of superoxide anion scavenging activities of tested samples showed that maximum scavenging activity (IC50=168.92 µg/mL) was found for 2E, very similar to standard ascorbic acid, followed by 2B and 2G. Results of the interactions between biomacromolecules and 2E indicated that 2E has the affinity to displace EB from the EB-DNA complex through intercalation [Ksv = (3.7 ± 0.1) × 103 M-1], while Ka value obtained via titration of BSA with 2E [Ka = (4.2 ± 0.2) × 105 M-1], support the fact that the significant amount of the drug could be transported and distributed through the cells. Conclusions: All β-diketonates exhibited better scavenging activities than their corresponding copper complexes. Among all the tested compounds, 2E gave the highest reducing power, even higher than standard ascorbic acid, while reducing power for compounds 2A and 2B was also good but low

In order to discover new therapeutically active agents a series of novel copper(II) complexes with 3,4-dihydro-2(1H)-quinoxalinones were synthesized. All complexes were characterized by IR and EPR spectroscopic techniques and examined for their cytotoxic effect on human cancer cell lines HeLa, LS174, A549 and normal fibroblasts (MRC-5). For further examination of the cytotoxic mechanisms of novel complexes, three of them were chosen for analysing their effects on the distribution of HeLa cells in the cell cycle phases. The results of the flow cytometry analysis suggest that tested complexes lead to time-dependent accumulation of the cells in S and G2/M phases. The strongest accumulation effect showed complex 2d after 48 h of incubation. Competitive experiments with ethidium bromide (EB) indicated that tested compound 2d have affinity to displace EB from the EB-DNA complex through intercalation. Also, the binding parameters values for 2d-BSA complex showed that a reversible 2d-BSA complex is formed and ligand 2d can be stored and carried by BSA.

In order to make a progress in discovering a new agents for chemotherapy with improved properties and bearing in mind the fact that substituted 3-hydroxy-3-pyrrolin-2-ones belong to a class of biologically active compounds, series of novel 1,5-diaryl-4-(2-thienylcarbonyl)-3-hydroxy-3-pyrrolin-2-ones were synthesized and characterized by spectral (UV–Vis, IR, NMR, ESI-MS), X-ray and elemental analysis. All compounds were examined for their cytotoxic effect on human cancer cell lines HeLa and MDA-MB 231 and normal fibroblasts (MRC-5). Four compounds, 3-hydroxy-1-(p-tolyl)-4-(2-thienylcarbonyl)-5-(4-chlorophenyl)-2,5-dihydro-1H-pyrrol-2-one (D10), 3-hydroxy-1-(3-nitrophenyl)-4-(2-thienylcarbonyl)-5-(4-(benzyloxy)phenyl)-2,5-dihydro-1H-pyrrol-2-one (D13), 3-hydroxy-1-(4-nitrophenyl)-4-(2-thienylcarbonyl)-5-(4-(benzyloxy)phenyl)-2,5-dihydro-1H-pyrrol-2-one (D14), and 3-hydroxy-1-(4-chlorophenyl)-4-(2-thienylcarbonyl)-5-(4-(benzyloxy)phenyl)-2,5-dihydro-1H-pyrrol-2-one (D15), that showed the highest cytotoxicity against malignant cells and the best selectivity towards normal cells were selected for further experiments. Results obtained by investigating mechanisms of cytotoxic activity suggest that selected 3-hydroxy-3-pyrrolin-2-one derivatives in HeLa cells induce apoptosis that is associated with S phase arrest (D13, D15, and D10) or unrelated to cell cycle distribution (D14). Additionally, to better understand their suitability for potential use as anticancer medicaments we studied the interactions between biomacromolecules (DNA or BSA) and D13 and D15. The results indicated that D13 and D15 have great affinity to displace EB from the EB-DNA complex through intercalation [K sv = (3.7 ± 0.1) and (3.4 ± 0.1) × 10 3 M −1 , respectively], an intercalative mode also confirmed through viscosity measurements. K a values, obtained as result of fluorescence titration of BSA with D13 and D15 [K a = (4.2 ± 0.2) and (2.6 ± 0.2) × 10 5 M, respectively], support the fact that a sign

In order to investigate potential therapeutically agents, novel products of Biginelli reaction (4a-l) were synthesized and exposed to cytotoxic and caspase activities, angiogenesis, cell cycle distribution, gene and microRNA expression levels, lipophilicity assessment and docking study. Among the twelve novel compounds (4a-l) evaluated for the cytotoxic activity, five of them (4c, 4d, 4f, 4k and 4l) that showed excellent activity on the tested cell lines (HeLa, LS174 and A549) were selected for further evaluation. Interestingly, compound 4f has up to three times higher selectivity index (SI) towards cancer cells than cisplatin (on HeLa, LS174 and A549 SI = 18.2, 13.5 and 11.2, respectively). The obtained results from cell cycle distribution and caspase activity indicate that tested compounds (4c, 4d, 4f, 4k and 4l) promoted caspase-9 activation, implicated in the intrinsic pathway of apoptosis. Lipophilicity of 4a-l was determinate by using reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography. © 2019 Elsevier Inc.

The selective synthesis of 5,6-dihydropyrimidin-4(3H)-one scaffold (precursor of dihydrouracil) was a very difficult synthetic challenge that, so far, has not been achieved. For the first time, in this paper, green, selective and high-yields approach to 40 novel 5,6-dihydropyrimidin-4(3H)-ones (DHPMs) by one-pot reaction of aldehydes, Meldrum's acid and isothioureas under solvent-free conditions, in the presence of water, since an additive is presented. In the majority of cases, introduced methodology gave an unprecedented tautomer-selective fashion toward targeted compounds with excellent tautomeric purity (>99.9%), which reached 100% in few cases. The molecular structure of the five compounds has been determined by X-ray crystallography. In each one of them, very short length for the corresponding N2-C1 bond was noticed, making them especially interesting from a structural standpoint. This experimental fact can imply a highly localized electron π density in this part of each heterocyclic ring. The obtained experimental results, which are determined from NMR and ESI-MS study, indicate that this Biginelli-type reaction smoothly proceeds in a one-pot mode, pointing to the three-step tandem process, proceeding via the Knoevenagel, aza-Michael, and retro-Diels-Alder reactions. The presented strategy also had the following advantages: reduction amount of waste, excellent values of green chemistry metrics (cEF, EcoScale and GCIS), and it is the first eco-friendly strategy toward the DHPMs scaffold. © Copyright 2018 American Chemical Society.

The selective synthesis of 5,6-dihydropyrimidin-4(3H)-one scaffold (precursor of dihydrouracil) was a very difficult synthetic challenge that, so far, has not been achieved. For the first time, in this paper, green, selective and high-yields approach to 40 novel 5,6-dihydropyrimidin-4(3H)-ones (DHPMs) by one-pot reaction of aldehydes, Meldrum's acid and isothioureas under solvent-free conditions, in the presence of water, since an additive is presented. In the majority of cases, introduced methodology gave an unprecedented tautomer-selective fashion toward targeted compounds with excellent tautomeric purity (>99.9%), which reached 100% in few cases. The molecular structure of the five compounds has been determined by X-ray crystallography. In each one of them, very short length for the corresponding N2-C1 bond was noticed, making them especially interesting from a structural standpoint. This experimental fact can imply a highly localized electron π density in this part of each heterocyclic ring. The obtained experimental results, which are determined from NMR and ESI-MS study, indicate that this Biginelli-type reaction smoothly proceeds in a one-pot mode, pointing to the three-step tandem process, proceeding via the Knoevenagel, aza-Michael, and retro-Diels-Alder reactions. The presented strategy also had the following advantages: reduction amount of waste, excellent values of green chemistry metrics (cEF, EcoScale and GCIS), and it is the first eco-friendly strategy toward the DHPMs scaffold. © Copyright 2018 American Chemical Society.

A serie of novel square pyramidal copper(II) complexes [Cu(L)(2)H2O] (3a-d) with O,O-bidentate ligands [L = ethyl-2-hydroxy-4-aryl-4-oxo-2-butenoate; aryl = 3-methoxyphenyl-2a, (E)-2-phenylvinyl-2b, (E)-2-(4-hydroxy-3-methoxyphenyl)vinyl-2c, 3-nitrophenyl-2d, 2-thienyl-2e] were synthesized and characterized by spectral (UV-Vis, IR, ESI-MS and EPR), elemental and X-ray analysis. The antimicrobial activity was estimated by the determination of the minimal inhibitory concentration (MIC) using the broth micro-dilution method. The most active antibacterial compounds were 3c and 3d, while the best antifungal activity was showed by complexes 3b and 3e. The lowest MIC value (0.048 mg mL(-1)) was measured for 3c against Proteus mirabilis. The cytotoxic activity was tested using the MTT method on human epithelial carcinoma HeLa cells, human lung carcinoma A549 cells and human colon carcinoma LS174 cells. All complexes showed extremely better cytotoxic activity compared to cisplatin at all tested concentrations. Compound 3d expressed the best activity against all tested cell lines with IC50 values ranging from 7.45 to 7.91 mu g mL(-1). The type of cell death and the impact on the cell cycle for 3d and 3e were evaluated by flow cytometry. Both compounds induced apoptosis and S phase cell cycle arrest. The interactions between selected complexes (3d and 3e) and CT-DNA or bovine serum albumin (BSA) were investigated by the fluorescence spectroscopic method. Competitive experiments with ethidium bromide (EB) indicated that 3d and 3e have a propensity to displace EB from the EB-DNA complex through intercalation suggesting strong competition with EB [K-sv = (1.4 +/- 0.2) and (2.9 +/- 0.1) x 10(4) M-1, respectively]. K-sv values indicate that these complexes bind to DNA covalently and non-covalently. The achieved results in the fluorescence titration of BSA with 3d and 3e [K-a = (2.9 +/- 0.2) x 10(6) and (2.5 +/- 0.2) x 10(5) M, respectively] showed that the fluorescence quenching of