Identification of 2,4-Diaminoquinazoline Derivative as a Potential Small-Molecule Inhibitor against Chikungunya and Ross River Viruses.

Alphaviruses are serious zoonotic threats responsible for significant morbidity, causing arthritis or encephalitis. So far, no licensed drugs or vaccines are available to combat alphaviral infections. About 300,000 chikungunya virus (CHIKV) infections have been reported in 2023, with more than 300 deaths, including reports of a few cases in the USA as well. The discovery and development of small-molecule drugs have been revolutionized over the last decade. Here, we employed a cell-based screening approach using a series of in-house small-molecule libraries to test for their ability to inhibit CHIKV replication. DCR 137, a quinazoline derivative, was found to be the most potent inhibitor of CHIKV replication in our screening assay. Both, the cytopathic effect, and immunofluorescence of infected cells were reduced in a dose-dependent manner with DCR 137 post-treatment. Most importantly, DCR 137 was more protective than the traditional ribavirin drug and reduced CHIKV plaque-forming units by several log units. CHIKV-E2 protein levels were also reduced in a dose-dependent manner. Further, DCR 137 was probed for its antiviral activity against another alphavirus, the Ross River virus, which revealed effective inhibition of viral replication. These results led to the identification of a potential quinazoline candidate for future optimization that might act as a pan-alphavirus inhibitor.

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.

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.

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.

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 Fischer's 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.