Badri Narayan Acharya

Synthesis and antimalarial evaluation of 1, 3, 5-trisubstituted pyrazolines

A series of 1,3,5-trisubstituted pyrazolines were synthesized and evaluated for in vitro antimalarial efficacy against chloroquine sensitive (MRC-02) as well as chloroquine resistant (RKL9) strains of Plasmodium falciparum. The activity was at nano molar concentration. beta-hematin formation inhibition activity (BHIA(50)) of the pyrazolines were determined and correlated with antimalarial activity. A reasonably good correlation (r=0.62) was observed between antimalarial activity (IC(50)) and BHIA(50). This suggests that antimalarial mode of action of this class of compounds appears to be similar to that of chloroquine and involves the inhibition of hemozoin formation. Some of the compounds were showing better antimalarial activity than chloroquine against resistant strain of P. falciparum and were also found active in the in vivo experiment.

Synthesis and antimalarial evaluation of novel pyridine quinoline hybrids

AbstractSynthesis and evaluation of the antimalarial activity of new pyridine quinoline hybrid molecules against a chloroquine-susceptible strain of Plasmodium falciparum and as inhibitors of β-hematin formation are described. Two novel pyridine quinoline hybrid molecules and one bisquinoline molecule were synthesized and purified by column chromatography and evaluated for antimalarial and haem polymerization inhibition (HPIA) activities. The molecules were found to be very good haem polymerization inhibitors but showed poor antimalarial activity. This was attributed to their low vacuole accumulation ratio (VAR) in comparison to chloroquine. These molecules can be used as templates for designing new antimalarials targeting haem detoxification pathway of malaria parasite.Graphical AbstractSynthesis and antimalarial evaluation of novel pyridine quinoline hybrids B.N Acharya, D. Thavaselvam# and M.P Kaushik* Discovery Centre, Process Technology Development DivisionDefence R & D Establishment, Jhansi Road, Gwalior-474002 (MP) INDIA #Division of Microbiology, Defence Research and Development Establishment,Gwalior-474002, India Synthesis and evaluation of antimalarial activity of new pyridine–quinoline hybrid molecules against a chloroquine-susceptible strain of Plasmodium falciparum and as inhibitors of β-hematin formation are described.

Pharmacophore based discovery of potential antimalarial agent targeting haem detoxification pathway

Pharmacophore hypotheses were generated from molecules having putative antimalarial activities targeting haem detoxification pathway of malarial parasite. A training set consisting of 33 compounds, whose activities were evaluated for haem polymerization inhibition and against chloroquine resistant (K1) strain of Plasmodium falciparum, was optimized to generate hypotheses. The hypothesis showing optimum correlation between actual and estimated activities was validated by Fischers randomization test at 95% confidence level and used as a model to screen our in-house compound database. Nicotinic acid [trans-3-(4-ethoxy-3-methoxy-phenyl)-1-(4-hydroxy-phenyl)-allylidene]-hydrazide (ALH5) was obtained as a hit. The compound was synthesized and evaluated against chloroquine sensitive (MRC-02) and resistant (RKL9) strains of malarial parasite P. falciparum. The compound showed antimalarial activity in nanomolar range and was found comparable with chloroquine.

Pharmacophore-based predictive model generation for potent antimalarials targeting haem detoxification pathway

Pharmacophore hypotheses were developed for molecules having antimalarial activities targeting the haem detoxification pathway of the malaria parasite. A training set consisting of 23 compounds was selected to generate these hypotheses, and their activities were evaluated for haem polymerization inhibition and against chloroquine-sensitive (3D7) as well as chloroquine-resistant (K1) strains of p. falciparum. The models were cross-validated by Fischer’s randomization test at a 95% confidence level. The model developed against chloroquine-resistant malaria parasites was found to yield the best predictions among the three models.

SNAr reaction in aqueous medium in the presence of mixed organic and inorganic bases

N-Arylation of amines with fluorobenzonitriles in aqueous medium is described. A mixture of N,N-diisopropylethyl amine and Na2CO3 (1 : 1) is found to achieve maximum conversion by refluxing for 3 hours in water. The product can be easily isolated by solvent extraction.

Synthesis and in vitro kinetic evaluation of N-thiazolylacetamido monoquaternary pyridinium oximes as reactivators of sarin, O-ethylsarin and VX inhibited human acetylcholinesterase (hAChE)

Presently available medications for treatment of organiphosphorus poisoning are not sufficiently effective due to various pharmacological and toxicological reasons. In this regard, herein we report the synthesis of a series of N-thiazolylacetamide monoquaternary pyridinium oximes and its analogs (1a-1b to 6a-6b) with diversely substituted thiazole ring and evaluation of their in vitro reactivation efficacies against nerve agent (sarin, O-ethylsarin and VX) inhibited human erythrocyte acetylcholinesterase (hAChE). Reactivation kinetics was performed to determine dissociation constant (KD), reactivity rate constant (kr) and the second order rate constant (kr2) for all the compounds and compared their efficacies with commercial antidotes viz. 2-PAM and obidoxime. All the newly synthesized oximes were evaluated for their physicochemical parameters (pKa) and correlated with their respective reactivation efficacies to assess the capability of the oxime reactivator. Three of these novel compounds showed promising reactivation efficacies toward OP inhibited hAChE. Molecular docking studies were performed in order to correlate the reactivation efficacies with their interactions in the active site of the AChE.

A DBU–diheteroaryl halide adduct as the fastest current N-diheteroarylating agent

An unexpected diazabicyclo[5.4.0]undec-7-ene (DBU) catalysed rate enhancement of N-arylation of amines with diheteroaryl halides is reported. DBU is found to activate the Ar–Cl bond of a diheteroaryl halide, forming a green coloured adduct under neat conditions. The activated green coloured adduct was used for the arylation of amines under neat conditions and was found to be the fastest diheteroarylating agent reported to date.

Design, synthesis, and evaluation of dihydropyrimidinone (DHPM) based muscarinic receptor antagonist

Organophosphorus compounds (OPCs) are highly toxic being used in pest control. Some of the OPCs are lethal chemical warfare agents and their toxicity is due to inhibition of acetylcholine esterase (AChE), the enzyme that hydrolyses neurotransmitter acetylcholine (ACh). Due to over accumulation of ACh at muscarinic acetylcholine receptors (mAChRs) several cholinergic functions increase uncontrollably like salivation, lacrimation, urination, defecation, gastrointestinal upset, and emesis. Atropine is used to treat OPC poisoning because it is a mAChR antagonist. But atropine has several unwanted side effects including dryness of mucous membrane, hot and dry skin, tachycardia, and restlessness. Our goal was to find out molecules having antimuscarinic activity which may be developed as potential alternatives for atropine in future. In this work pharmacophore-based screening, structure identification, synthesis and ex vivo evaluation of a new class of muscarinic receptor antagonist are described. The antagonists are based on dihydropyrimidinone scaffold with a tertiary or quaternary amine side group. A series of molecules were evaluated for preliminary pharmacological activity on rat ileum out of which three molecules found active.

Rapid Analysis of Dithiaalkane Diols by HPLC

Abstract A reversed‐phase high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) method has been developed for simultaneous detection of dithiaalkanediols, having the common formula [(HO–CH2–CH2–S)2(CH2) n ] in a homologues series where n = 1–10. Both isocratic and gradient methods were developed, and the latter was found to be suitable for both qualitative and quantitative analysis. The method is simple, specific, and requires only small quantities of chemicals and reagents.

Development of nsP2 protease based cell free high throughput screening assay for evaluation of inhibitors against emerging Chikungunya virus

Chikungunya virus has emerged as one of the most important global arboviral threats over the last decade. Inspite of large scale morbidity, with long lasting polyarthralgia, so far no licensed vaccine or antiviral is available. CHIKV nsP2 protease is crucial for processing of viral nonstructural polypeptide precursor to release enzymes required for viral replication, thus making it a promising drug target. In this study, high cell density cultivation (HCDC) of Escherichia coli in batch process was carried out to produce rCHIKV nsP2pro in a cost-effective manner. The purified nsP2pro and fluorogenic peptide substrate have been adapted for fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) based high throughput screening (HTS) assay with Z’ value and CV of 0.67 ± 0.054 and <10% respectively. We used this cell free HTS system to screen panel of metal ions and its conjugate which revealed zinc acetate as a potential candidate, which was further found to inhibit CHIKV in Vero cells. Scale-up process has not been previously reported for any of the arboviral nonstructural enzymes. The successful scale-up method for viral protease together with a HTS assay could lead to the development of industrial level large-scale screening platform for identification of protease inhibitors against emerging and re-emerging viruses.