Cancer Treatment by Caryophyllaceae-Type Cyclopeptides.

Cancer is one of the leading diseases, which, in the most cases, ends with death and, thus, continues to be a major concern in human beings worldwide. The conventional anticancer agents used in the clinic often face resistance among many cancer diseases. Moreover, heavy financial costs preclude patients from continuing treatment. Bioactive peptides, active in several diverse areas against man's health problems, such as infection, pain, hypertension, and so on, show the potential to be effective in cancer treatment and may offer promise as better candidates for combating cancer. Cyclopeptides, of natural or synthetic origin, have several advantages over other drug molecules with low toxicity and low immunogenicity, and they are easily amenable to several changes in their sequences. Given their many demanded homologues, they have created new hope of discovering better compounds with desired properties in the field of challenging cancer diseases. Caryophyllaceae-type cyclopeptides show several biological activities, including cancer cytotoxicity. These cyclopeptides have been discovered in several plant families but mainly are from the Caryophyllaceae family. In this review, a summary of biological activities found for these cyclopeptides is given; the focus is on the anticancer findings of these peptides. Among these cyclopeptides, information about Dianthins (including Longicalycinin A), isolated from different species of Caryophyllaceae, as well as their synthetic analogues is detailed. Finally, by comparing their structures and cytotoxic activities, finding the common figures of these kinds of cyclopeptides as well as their possible future place in the clinic for cancer treatment is put forward.

Structure-activity relationship studies of Longicalcynin A analogues, as anticancer cyclopeptides.

Cancer has emerged as the main cause of the highest rate of mortality in the world. Drugs used in cancer, although, show some beneficial effects on cancerous organs, demonstrate side effects on other normal tissues. On the other hand, anticancer peptides, being effective on target tissues, should be safe and less harmful on healthy organs, since peptides have several advantages, i.e., high activity, specificity, affinity, being less immunogenic and not accumulate in the body. In the present work, analogues of Longicalcynin A, a naturally occurring anticancer cyclopeptide, were synthesized and evaluated their cytotoxicity in order to gain information from structure-activity relationships of the such cyclopeptides which may lead to find novel and safer anticancer peptide compound(s) to be used in clinic. Peptides were prepared by the solid-phase peptide synthesis method using trityl-resin. Peptide cyclization was performed in liquid phase. To study anticancer activity of the peptide analogues of Longicalycinin A, several methods including MTT, flow cytometry analysis and Lysosomal membrane integrity assay were employed using two cell lines HepG2 and HT-29. Fibroblast cells were used to control the safety of the synthesized cyclopeptides on normal cells. Two cyclopeptides 11 and 17 with the sequences of cyclo-(Thr-Val-Pro-Phe-Ala) and cyclo-(Phe-Ser-Pro-Phe-Ala), respectively were cytotoxic against the colon as well as hepatic cancer cells with safety profile against fibroblast cells, probably with the mechanism of apoptosis as lysosomal membrane integrity damaged. These cyclopeptides showed to be more favorable compounds better than Longicalycinin A and good candidates to develop cyclopeptides as anticancer agents.

Synthesis of Linear and Cyclic Disulfide Heptapeptides of Longicalycinin A and Evaluation of Toxicity on Cancerous Cells HepG2 and HT-29.

In this work, linear and cyclic disulfide heptapeptides of Longicalycinin A have been successfully synthesized by solid phase methodology with Fmoc /t-Bu and solution phase, respectively. 2-Chlorotrityl chloride resin (2-CTC) was used as a solid support. The synthesized linear disulfide analogue of Longicalycinin A was cleaved from the resin as a protected peptide. The final deprotection was performed by treatment with TFA 95% containing scavengers to achieve the deprotected linear disulfide analogue of Longicalycinin A which was characterized by different instrumental methods using LC-MS and FT-IR. Macrocyclization of deprotected linear peptide was done by an oxidating reagent. Linear and cyclic disulfide heptapeptides of Longicalycinin A were evaluated their toxic activity against cell lines of HepG2 and HT-29 using 3- (4, 5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl) -2, -5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide reagent in MTT assay. The synthetic analogues showed a relative good activity against cell lines of HepG2 and HT-29 with IC50 values from 10.33 µg/mL to 12.45 µg/mL, in comparison to the standard drug 5-fluorouracil (5-FU). Safety profiles of the synthesized linear and cyclic disulfide analogues of Longicalycinin A were also examined on skin fibroblast cells. Between the linear and cyclic disulfide heptapeptides of Longicalycinin A, the cyclic peptide showed a considerable toxic activity on the cancerous cell lines along with a low safety result on normal cells. Therefore, the linear disulfide heptapeptide of Longicalycinin A would be encouraging to develop new anticancer agents.

The toxicity study of synthesized inverse carnosine peptide analogues on HepG2 and HT-29 cells.

OBJECTIVE: Cancer has risen as the main cause of diseases with the highest rate of mortality in the world. Drugs used in cancer, usually demonstrate side effects on normal tissues. On the other hand, anticancer small peptides, effective on target tissues, should be safe on healthy organs, as being naturally originated compounds. In addition, they may have good pharmacokinetic properties. carnosine, a natural dipeptide, has shown many biological functions, including anti-oxidant, anti-senescence, anti-inflammatory and anticancer activities. This study, with the aim of introducing new anticancer agents with better properties, is focused on the synthesis and cytotoxic evaluation of some peptide analogues of carnosine. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The cytotoxic activity of the synthesized peptides, prepared by the solid-phase peptide synthesis method, was evaluated against two cell lines of HepG2 and HT-29 using MTT assay, lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) assay and flow cytometry analysis. RESULTS: Linear and cyclic analogues of carnosine peptide showed cytotoxicity, demonstrated by several experiments, against HepG2 and HT-29 cell lines with mean IC50 values ranging from 9.81 to 16.23 µg/ml. Among the peptides, compounds 1c, 3c and 6b (linear analogue of 3c) showed a considerable toxic activity on the cancerous cell lines. CONCLUSION: The cyclic peptide analogues of carnosine with His-ß-Ala-Pro-ß-Ala-His (1c) and ß-Ala-His-Pro-His-ß-Ala (3c) sequences showed cytotoxic activity on cancerous cells of HepG2 and HT-29, better than carnosine, and thus can be good candidates to develop new anticancer agents. The mechanism of cytotoxicity may be through cell apoptosis.

Design, Synthesis and Anticonvulsant Activity of 2-(2-Phenoxy) phenyl- 1,3,4-oxadiazole Derivatives.

Benzodiazepines are useful drugs for treatment of sleep disorders, anxiety, seizure cases and skeletal muscle cramps. Some derivatives of 2-(2-Phenoxy) phenyl-1, 3, 4-oxadiazole were synthesized as benzodiazepine receptor agonists. Conformational analysis and superimposition of energy minima conformers of the compounds on estazolam, a known benzodiazepine agonist, reveal that the main proposed benzodiazepine pharmacophores were well matched. Anticonvulsant activity of the synthesized compounds, determined by pentylenetetrazole-induced lethal convulsion test, showed that the introduction of an amino substituent in position 5 of 1,3,4- oxadiazole ring generates compound 9 which has a respectable effect. The results are in agreement with SAR of benzodiazepine receptor ligands since the elimination of electronegative substituent in position 2 of phenoxy ring or position 4 of phenyl ring reduces the anticonvulsant activity.