Carlos R. Pungitore

Enhancement of antiproliferative activity by molecular simplification of catalpol

Two iridoid scaffolds were synthesized enantioselectively using as key step an l-proline-catalyzed alpha-formyl oxidation. The in vitro antiproliferative activities were evaluated against a representative panel of human solid tumor cell lines. Both iridoids induced considerably growth inhibition in the range 0.38-1.86muM. Cell cycle studies for these compounds showed the induction of cell cycle arrest at the G(1) phase. This result was consistent with a decrease in the expression of cyclin D1. Damaged cells underwent apoptosis as indicated by specific Annexin V staining.

A new iridoid, verbascoside and derivatives with inhibitory activity against Taq DNA polymerase

DNA polymerases are enzymes that play a crucial role in DNA metabolism such as replication, repair, transcription, recombination, and chromosome segregation during mitosis. Herein we report the isolation of a new iridoid (6-epi-catalpol, 2) and per-O-acetyl-verbascoside (11) from aerial part of Buddleja cordobensis Grisebach (Buddlejaceae). From compound 2, we have obtained eight compounds by chemical transformation. This group of compounds at a concentration of 500μM was assayed against Taq DNA polymerase. Compound 11 (per-O-acetyl-verbascoside) was the most active with an IC50 of 1.21±0.18μM; compounds 9, 2 and 8 were strong inhibitors with IC50 values of 5.57±0.70, 21.62±0.22 and 78.13±0.93μM, respectively. Compounds 11 and 9 could be a leader structures to development new anticancer chemotherapy medicines and a useful tool to investigate DNA polymerase activity.

In silico study of the inhibition of DNA polymerase by a novel catalpol derivative.

In this work, a novel catalpol derivative (6,10,2′,6′-tetraacetyl-O-catalpol), which was previously obtained by our group and shown experimentally to inhibit a type of Taq DNA polymerase, was studied in silico. Studies of the interaction of 6,10,2′,6′-tetraacetyl-O-catalpol with the Klentaq fragment of the Taq DNA polymerase I from Thermus aquaticus helped to elucidate the mechanism of inhibition of the enzyme, and offered valuable information that can be used to propose substrate structural modifications aimed at increasing the binding affinity. Classical and semi-empirical methods were used to characterize the conformational preferences of this organic compound in solution. Using docking simulations, the most probable binding mode was found, and the stabilities of the docked solutions were tested in a series of molecular dynamics experiments. Results indicated that the mechanism of inhibition may be competitive, which agrees with previous binding experiments done with 6,10,2′,6′-tetraacetyl-O-catalpol.

Collection of alkenylcoumarin derivatives as Taq DNA polymerase inhibitors: SAR and in silico simulations

Using a feasible method, we generated a small focused library of structurally related alkenylcoumarins. These compounds were evaluated as potential antitumoral agents against Taq DNA polymerase. 6-(pent-4-enyloxy)-coumarin (7) IC50 = 48.33 ± 2.85 μM was defined as a small molecule able to disturb DNA replication. Docking and Molecular Dynamic Simulations suggest an active-site binding. Structure/activity relationship was reasonably established. Compound 7 represents a potential structure for further studies in the development of new anti-cancer DNA/polymerase binding agents.

DNA Related Enzymes as Molecular Targets for Antiviral and Antitumoral Chemotherapy. A Natural Overview of the Current Perspectives

BACKGROUND The discovery of new chemotherapeutic agents still remains a continuous goal to achieve. DNA polymerases and topoisomerases act in nucleic acids metabolism modulating different processes like replication, mitosis, damage repair, DNA topology and transcription. It has been widely documented that Polymerases serve as molecular targets for antiviral and antitumoral chemotherapy. Furthermore, telomerase is a ribonucleoprotein with exacerbated activity in most of the tumor cell lines, becoming as an emergent target in Cancer treatment. METHODS We undertook an exhaustive search of bibliographic databases for peer-reviewed research literature related to the last decade. The characteristics of screened bibliography describe structure activity relationships and show the principal moieties involved. This work tries to summarize the investigation about natural and semi-synthetic products with natural origin with the faculty to inhibit key enzymes that play a crucial role in DNA metabolism. RESULTS Eighty-five data references were included in this review, showing natural products widely distributed throughout the plant kingdom and their bioactive properties such as tumor growing inhibitory effects, and anti-AIDS activity. CONCLUSION The findings of this review confirm the importance to find new drugs and biologically active natural products, and their potential medicinally useful benefits.