Rong-Xia Geng

Comprehensive Review in Current Developments of Imidazole-Based Medicinal Chemistry

Imidazole ring is an important five‐membered aromatic heterocycle widely present in natural products and synthetic molecules. The unique structural feature of imidazole ring with desirable electron‐rich characteristic is beneficial for imidazole derivatives to readily bind with a variety of enzymes and receptors in biological systems through diverse weak interactions, thereby exhibiting broad bioactivities. The related research and developments of imidazole‐based medicinal chemistry have become a rapidly developing and increasingly active topic. Particularly, numerous imidazole‐based compounds as clinical drugs have been extensively used in the clinic to treat various types of diseases with high therapeutic potency, which have shown the enormous development value. This work systematically gives a comprehensive review in current developments of imidazole‐based compounds in the whole range of medicinal chemistry as anticancer, antifungal, antibacterial, antitubercular, anti‐inflammatory, antineuropathic, antihypertensive, antihistaminic, antiparasitic, antiobesity, antiviral, and other medicinal agents, together with their potential applications in diagnostics and pathology. It is hoped that this review will be helpful for new thoughts in the quest for rational designs of more active and less toxic imidazole‐based medicinal drugs, as well as more effective diagnostic agents and pathologic probes.

Synthesis and biological evaluation of α-triazolyl chalcones as a new type of potential antimicrobial agents and their interaction with calf thymus DNA and human serum albumin

A series of α-triazolyl chalcones were efficiently synthesized. Most of the prepared compounds showed effective antibacterial and antifungal activities. Noticeably, α-triazolyl derivative 9a exhibited low MIC value of 4 μg/mL against MRSA and Micrococcus luteus, which was comparable or even superior to reference drugs. The further research revealed that compound 9a could effectively intercalate into Calf Thymus DNA to form 9a-DNA complex which might block DNA replication to exert their powerful antimicrobial activities. Competitive interactions between 9a and metal ions to Human Serum Albumin (HSA) suggested the participation of Fe(3+), K(+) and Mg(2+) ions in 9a-HSA system could increase the concentration of free 9a, shorten its storage time and half-life in the blood, thus improving its antimicrobial efficacy.

Design, synthesis and evaluation of clinafloxacin triazole hybrids as a new type of antibacterial and antifungal agents

A series of clinafloxacin triazole hybrids as a new type of antibacterial and antifungal agents were synthesized for the first time and screened for their antimicrobial efficacy against four Gram-positive bacteria, four Gram-negative bacteria and two fungi by two fold serial dilution technique. The bioactive assay indicated that most of the target compounds displayed broad antimicrobial spectrum and good antibacterial and antifungal activities with low MIC values ranging from 0.25 to 2 μg/mL against all the tested strains which exhibited comparable or even better efficiency in comparison with the reference drugs Chloramphenicol, Clinafloxacin and Fluconazole, respectively. Notably, some synthesized clinafloxacin triazoles showed stronger efficacy against methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus than their parent Clinafloxacin.

Synthesis and biological evaluation of a class of quinolone triazoles as potential antimicrobial agents and their interactions with calf thymus DNA

A novel series of quinolone triazoles were synthesized and characterized by IR, NMR, MS and HRMS spectra. All the newly prepared compounds were screened for their antimicrobial activities against seven bacteria and four fungi. Bioactive assay manifested that most of new compounds exhibited good or even stronger antibacterial and antifungal activities against the tested strains including multi-drug resistant MRSA in comparison with reference drugs Norfloxacin, Chloromycin and Fluconazole. The preliminary interactive investigations of compound 6b with calf thymus DNA by fluorescence and UV-vis spectroscopic methods revealed that compound 6b could effectively intercalate DNA to form compound 6b-DNA complex which might block DNA replication and thus exert its antimicrobial activities.

Novel berberine triazoles: Synthesis, antimicrobial evaluation and competitive interactions with metal ions to Human Serum Albumin

A series of novel berberine triazoles were synthesized and characterized by IR, NMR, MS and HRMS spectra. All target compounds and their precursors were screened for antimicrobial activities in vitro against four Gram-positive bacteria, four Gram-negative bacteria and two fungal strains. Bioactive assay indicated that most of the prepared compounds exhibited good antibacterial and antifungal activities with low MIC values ranging from 2 to 64 μg/mL, which were comparable to or even better than the reference drugs Berberine, Chloromycin, Norfloxacin and Fluconazole. The competitive interactions between compound 5a and metal ions to Human Serum Albumin (HSA) revealed that the participation of Mg(2+) and Fe(3+) ions in compound 5a-HSA association could result in the concentration increase of free compound 5a, shorten the storage time and half-life of compound 5a in the blood, thus improving its antimicrobial efficacy.

Review on supermolecules as chemical drugs

Supramolecular medicinal chemistry field has been a quite rapidly developing, increasingly active and newly rising interdiscipline which is the new expansion of supramolecular chemistry in pharmaceutical sciences, and is gradually becoming a relatively independent scientific area. Supramolecular drugs could be defined as medicinal supermolecules formed by two or more molecules through non-covalent bonds. So far a lot of supermolecules as chemical drugs have been widely used in clinics. Supermolecules as chemical drugs, i.e. supramolecular chemical drugs or supramolecular drugs, which might have the excellences of lower cost, shorter period, higher potential as clinical drugs for their successful research and development, may possess higher bioavailability, better biocompatibility and drug-targeting, fewer multidrug-resistances, lower toxicity, less adverse effect, and better curative effects as well as safety, and therefore exhibit wide potential application. These overwhelming advantages have drawn enormous special attention. This paper gives the definition of supramolecular drugs, proposes the concept of supramolecular chemical drugs, and systematically reviews the recent advances in the research and development of supermolecules, including organic and inorganic complex ones as chemical drugs in the area of antitumor, anti-inflammatory, analgesic, antimalarial, antibacterial, antifungal, antivirus, anti-epileptic, cardiovascular agents and magnetic resonance imaging agents and so on. The perspectives of the foreseeable future and potential application of supramolecules as chemical drugs are also presented.

Synthesis and bioactive evaluation of novel hybrids of metronidazole and berberine as new type of antimicrobial agents and their transportation behavior by human serum albumin

A series of novel hybrids of metronidazole and berberine as new type of antimicrobial agents were synthesized and characterized by (1)H NMR, (13)C NMR, IR, MS and HRMS spectra. Bioactive assay manifested that most of the prepared compounds exhibited effective antibacterial and antifungal activities and some showed comparable or superior potency against Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus to reference drugs Norfloxacin, Chloromycin and Berberine. The transportation behavior of human serum albumin (HSA) to the highly active compound 5g was evaluated and revealed that the association of imidazole derivative 5g with HSA was spontaneous and the electrostatic interactions played important roles in the transportation of HSA to 5g. The calculated parameters indicated that compound 5g could be effectively stored and carried by HSA.

Synthesis, Antibacterial and Antifungal Activities of Novel 1,2,4‐Triazolium Derivatives

A series of novel 1,2,4‐triazolium derivatives was synthesized starting from commercially available 1H‐1,2,4‐triazole, 2,4‐dichlorobenzyl chloride, or 2,4‐difluorobenzyl bromide. Their antibacterial and antifungal activities were evaluated against Staphylococcus aureus ATCC 29213, Escherichia coli ATCC 25922, Bacillus proteus, Bacillus subtilis, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Candida albicans ATCC 76615, and Aspergillus fumigatus. All structures of the new compounds were confirmed by NMR, IR, and MS spectra, and elemental analyses. The antimicrobial tests showed that most of synthesized triazolium derivatives exhibit significant antibacterial and antifungal activities in vitro. 1‐(2,4‐Difluorobenzyl)‐4‐dodecyl‐1H‐1,2,4‐triazol‐4‐ium bromide and 1‐(2,4‐Dichlorobenzyl)‐4‐dodecyl‐1H‐1,2,4‐ triazol‐4‐ium bromide were the most potent compounds against all tested strains with the MIC values ranging from 1.05 to 8.38 μM. They exhibited much stronger activities than the standard drugs chloramphenicol and fluconazole which are in clinical use. The results also showed that the antimicrobial activities of triazolium derivatives depend upon the type of substituent, the length of the alkyl chain, and the number of triazolium rings.

Design and biological evaluation of novel quinolone-based metronidazole derivatives as potent Cu2+ mediated DNA-targeting antibacterial agents

A series of novel quinolone-based metronidazole derivatives as new type of antimicrobial agents were developed and characterized. Most of them gave good antibacterial activity towards the Gram-positive and negative bacteria. Noticeably, quinolone derivative 3i exhibited low MIC value of 0.25 μg/mL against Pseudomonas aeruginosa, which was even superior to reference drugs Norfloxacin, Ciprofloxacin and Clinafloxacin. The further research revealed that compound 3i could intercalate into P. aeruginosa DNA through copper ion bridge to form a steady 3i-Cu(2+)-DNA ternary complex which might further block DNA replication to exert the powerful bioactivities.

Recent Development of Benzotriazole-based Medicinal Drugs

The extensively clinical use of triazole-based medicinal drugs has been promoting increasing effort to develop new structural triazole derivatives. Benzotriazoles as fused aromatic nitrogen heterocycles of benzene ring with triazole exhibit wide potentialities in medicinal chemistry since some anticancer benzotriazole compounds like vorozole and 4,5,6,7-tetrabromo-1H-benzotriazole (TBB) were used in clinical therapy. The benzotriazole related investigations are becoming increasingly active. On the basis of authors’ researches and other literature in recent five years, this work for the first time gave a comprehensive review on the latest and outstanding developments of benzotriazole compounds in medicinal chemistry, including as anticancer, antifungal, antibacterial, antitubercular, antiviral, antioxidative, antiparasitic, antioxidative agents and so on. Hopefully, this contribution will be helpful to develop benzotriazole-based drugs with high bioactivity and low toxicity.