Aline Caroline da Silva

In vitro antileishmanial activity and cytotoxicity of essential oil from Lippia sidoides Cham.

Leishmaniasis is a widespread tropical infection caused by different species of Leishmania protozoa. There is no vaccine available for Leishmania infections and conventional treatments are very toxic to the patients. Therefore, antileishmanial drugs are urgently needed. In this study we have analyzed the effects of essential oils from Lippia sidoides (LSEO) and its major compound thymol on the growth, viability and ultrastructure of Leishmania amazonensis. The essential oil and thymol showed significant activity against promastigote forms of L. amazonensis, with IC(50)/48 h of 44.38 and 19.47 μg/mL respectively. However, thymol showed toxicity against peritoneal macrophages and low selectivity against the promastigotes when compared with the crude LSEO. On the other hand, no cytotoxic effect was observed in macrophages treated with the crude essential oil. Incubation of L. amazonensis-infected macrophages with LSEO showed a marked reduction in amastigote survival within the macrophages. Significant morphological alterations as accumulation of large lipid droplets in the cytoplasm, disrupted membrane and wrinkled cells were usually seen in treated parasites. The LSEOs activity against both promastigote and the amstigote forms of L. amazonensis, together with its low toxicity to mammalian cells, point to LSEO as a promising agent for the treatment of cutaneous leishmaniasis.

Conformational restriction of aryl thiosemicarbazones produces potent and selective anti-Trypanosoma cruzi compounds which induce apoptotic parasite death

Chagas disease, caused by Trypanosoma cruzi, is a life-threatening infection leading to approximately 12,000 deaths per year. T. cruzi is susceptible to thiosemicarbazones, making this class of compounds appealing for drug development. Previously, the homologation of aryl thiosemicarbazones resulted in an increase in anti-T. cruzi activity in comparison to aryl thiosemicarbazones without a spacer group. Here, we report the structural planning, synthesis and anti-T. cruzi evaluation of new aryl thiosemicarbazones (9a-x), designed as more conformationally restricted compounds. By varying substituents attached to the phenyl ring, substituents were observed to retain, enhance or greatly increase the anti-T. cruzi activity, in comparison to the nonsubstituted derivative. In most cases, hydrophobic and bulky substituents, such as bromo, biphenyl and phenoxyl groups, greatly increased antiparasitic activity. Specifically, thiosemicarbazones were identified that inhibit the epimastigote proliferation and were toxic for trypomastigotes without affecting mouse splenocytes viability. The most potent anti-T. cruzi thiosemicarbazones were evaluated against cruzain. However, inhibition of this enzyme was not observed, suggesting that the compounds work through another mechanism. In addition, examination of T. cruzi cell death showed that these thiosemicarbazones induce apoptosis. In conclusion, the structural design executed within the series of aryl thiosemicarbazones (9a-x) led to the identification of new potent anti-T. cruzi agents, such as compounds (9h) and (9r), which greatly inhibited epimastigote proliferation, and demonstrated a toxicity for trypomastigotes, but not for splenocytes. Mechanistically, these compounds do not inhibit the cruzain, but induce T. cruzi cell death by an apoptotic process.

Structural Design, Synthesis and Structure–Activity Relationships of Thiazolidinones with Enhanced Anti‐Trypanosoma cruzi Activity

Pharmacological treatment of Chagas disease is based on benznidazole, which displays poor efficacy when administered during the chronic phase of infection. Therefore, the development of new therapeutic options is needed. This study reports on the structural design and synthesis of a new class of anti‐Trypanosoma cruzi thiazolidinones (4 a–p). (2‐[2‐Phenoxy‐1‐(4‐bromophenyl)ethylidene)hydrazono]‐5‐ethylthiazolidin‐4‐one (4 h) and (2‐[2‐phenoxy‐1‐(4‐phenylphenyl)ethylidene)hydrazono]‐5‐ethylthiazolidin‐4‐one (4 l) were the most potent compounds, resulting in reduced epimastigote proliferation and were toxic for trypomastigotes at concentrations below 10 μM, while they did not display host cell toxicity up to 200 μM. Thiazolidinone 4 h was able to reduce the in vitro parasite burden and the blood parasitemia in mice with similar potency to benznidazole. More importantly, T. cruzi infection reduction was achieved without exhibiting mouse toxicity. Regarding the molecular mechanism of action, these thiazolidinones did not inhibit cruzain activity, which is the major trypanosomal protease. However, investigating the cellular mechanism of action, thiazolidinones altered Golgi complex and endoplasmic reticulum (ER) morphology, produced atypical cytosolic vacuoles, as well as induced necrotic parasite death. This structural design employed for the new anti‐T. cruzi thiazolidinones (4 a–p) led to the identification of compounds with enhanced potency and selectivity compared to first‐generation thiazolidinones. These compounds did not inhibit cruzain activity, but exhibited strong antiparasitic activity by acting as parasiticidal agents and inducing a necrotic parasite cell death.

Evaluation of the Anti-Schistosoma mansoni Activity of Thiosemicarbazones and Thiazoles

ABSTRACT Schistosomiasis is a chronic and debilitating disease caused by a trematode of the genus Schistosoma and affects over 207 million people. Chemotherapy is the only immediate recourse for minimizing the prevalence of this disease and involves predominately the administration of a single drug, praziquantel (PZQ). Although PZQ has proven efficacy, there is a recognized need to develop new drugs as schistosomicides since studies have shown that repeated use of this drug in areas of endemicity may cause a temporary reduction in susceptibility in isolates of Schistosoma mansoni. Hydrazones, thiosemicarbazones, phthalimides, and thiazoles are thus regarded as privileged structures used for a broad spectrum of activities and are potential candidates for sources of new drug prototypes. The present study determined the in vitro schistosomicidal activity of 10 molecules containing these structures. During the assays, parameters such motility and mortality, oviposition, morphological changes in the tegument, cytotoxicity, and immunomodulatory activity caused by these compounds were evaluated. The results showed that compounds formed of thiazole and phthalimide led to higher mortality of worms, with a significant decline in motility, inhibition of pairing and oviposition, and a mortality rate of 100% starting from 144 h of exposure. These compounds also stimulated the production of nitric oxide and tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α), thereby demonstrating the presence of immunomodulatory activity. The phthalyl thiazole LpQM-45 caused significant ultrastructural alterations, with destruction of the tegument in both male and female worms. According to the present study, phthalyl thiazole compounds possess antischistosomal activities and should form the basis for future experimental and clinical trials.

Antitumor and immunomodulatory activities of thiosemicarbazones and 1,3-Thiazoles in Jurkat and HT-29 cells.

Cancer remains a high incidence and mortality disease, causing around 8.2 million of deaths in the last year. Current chemotherapy needs to be expanded, making research for new drugs a necessary task. Immune system modulation is an emerging concept in cancer cell proliferation control. In fact, there are a number of mechanisms underlying the role immune system plays in tumor cells. In this work, we describe the structural design, synthesis, antitumor and immunomodulatory potential of 31 new 1,3-thiazole and thiosemicarbazone compounds. Cisplatin was used as anticancer drug control. Cytotoxicity against J774A.1 macrophages and antitumor activity against HT-29 and Jurkat cells was determined. These 1,3-thiazole and thiosemicarbazone compounds not only exhibited cytotoxicity in cancer cells, but were able to cause irreversible cancer cell damage by inducing necrosis and apoptosis. In addition, these compounds, especially pyridyl-thiazoles compounds, regulated immune factors such as interleukin 10 and tumor necrosis factor, possible by directing immune system in favor of modulating cancer cell proliferation. By examining their pharmacological activity, we were able to identify new potent and selective anticancer compounds.

New 1,3-thiazole derivatives and their biological and ultrastructural effects on Trypanosoma cruzi

In previous studies, the compound 3-(bromopropiophenone) thiosemicarbazone was described as a potent anti-Trypanosoma cruzi and cruzain inhibitor. In view to optimize this activity, 1,3-thiazole core was used as building-block strategy to access new lead generation of anti T. cruzi agents. In this way a series of thiazole derivatives were synthesized and most of these derivatives exhibited antiparasitic activity similar to benznidazole (Bzd). Among them, compounds (1c) and (1g) presented better selective index (SI) than Bzd. In addition, compounds showed inhibitory activity against the cruzain protease. As observed by electron microscopy, compound (1c) treatment caused irreversible and specific morphological changes on ultrastructure organization of T. cruzi, demonstrating that this class of compounds is killing parasites.

In vivo near-infrared fluorescence imaging of Leishmania amazonensis expressing infrared fluorescence protein (iRFP) for real-time monitoring of cutaneous leishmaniasis in mice

The use of Leishmania amazonensis-infected BALB/c mice is an important model for the study of experimental cutaneous leishmaniasis. Here we report the development of a non-invasive method to directly evaluate and measure parasite burden during the course of the infection, based on the near-infrared fluorescence detection of a recombinant L. amazonensis strain. So, we generated a L. amazonensis strain that stably expresses the near-infrared protein (iRFP) gene and compared the maintenance of its vitro and in vivo characteristics, such as fitness, pathogenicity and fluorescence emission. After that, we followed the disease development, as well as the parasite burden in BALB/c mice footpads infected with L. amazonensis-iRFP, by using an in vivo near-infrared fluorescence scanner. In vitro results showed a linear correlation between the fluorescence emission and the number of parasites. The in vivo study showed that the use of iRFP-transfected L. amazonensis enables the monitoring of parasite burden by measuring fluorescence signals. Therefore, this technique can be confidently used to directly monitor parasitic load and infection overtime and could be an excellent tool for in vitro and in vivo screening of anti-leishmanial drugs and vaccine efficiency. This is the first report of the use of the near-infrared fluorescence imaging technique for monitoring in vivo cutaneous leishmaniasis.