PET Molecular Imaging in Drug Development: The Imaging and Chemistry Perspective.

Positron emission tomography with selective radioligands advances the drug discovery and development process by revealing information about target engagement, proof of mechanism, pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic profiles. Positron emission tomography (PET) is an essential and highly significant tool to study therapeutic drug development, dose regimen, and the drug plasma concentrations of new drug candidates. Selective radioligands bring up target-specific information in several disease states including cancer, cardiovascular, and neurological conditions by quantifying various rates of biological processes with PET, which are associated with its physiological changes in living subjects, thus it reveals disease progression and also advances the clinical investigation. This study explores the major roles, applications, and advances of PET molecular imaging in drug discovery and development process with a wide range of radiochemistry as well as clinical outcomes of positron-emitting carbon-11 and fluorine-18 radiotracers.

Curcumin inspired 2-chloro/phenoxy quinoline analogues: Synthesis and biological evaluation as potential anticancer agents.

Synthesis of twenty new curcumin inspired 2-chloro/phenoxy quinoline derivatives is outlined in this study. The obtained new chemical entities were screened in vitro for their cytotoxic activity towards various tumor cell lines. Of the compounds screened, 6c and 9d exhibited significant activity and the most active analogue 6c displayed promising cytotoxicity against PC-3 (IC50 of 3.12 ±â€¯0.11 µM), DU-145, NCI-H460 and 4 T1 cell lines. Further, 6c and 9d have 2.1 and 1.4 times more aqueous solubility, respectively, than curcumin. Additionally, the promising candidate 6c could induce G2/M cell cycle arrest and apoptosis in PC-3 cells, as determined by AO-EB staining, DAPI staining, analysis of ROS levels as well as annexin binding assay.

Synthesis and biological evaluation of curcumin inspired imidazo[1,2-a]pyridine analogues as tubulin polymerization inhibitors.

With an aim to develop new curcumin inspired analogues as potent anticancer agents, we synthesized a series of (1E,4E)-1-phenyl-5-(3-phenylimidazo[1,2-a]pyridin-2-yl)penta-1,4-dien-3-ones (12a-t) as tubulin polymerization inhibitors. An initial screening was carried out to evaluate their cytotoxic potential on a panel of six cancer cell lines namely, cervical (HeLa), gastric (HGC-27), lung (NCI-H460), prostate (DU-145 and PC-3) and breast (4T1), using MTT assay. Among the compounds tested, compounds 12e, 12r and 12t showed potent growth inhibition and 12t {(1E,4E)-1-(3-(3,4-difluorophenyl)imidazo[1,2-a]pyridin-2-yl)-5-(2,4,6-trimethoxyphenyl)penta-1,4-dien-3-one} being the most active member of the series inhibited the growth of all the tested cell lines with IC50 values varying from 1.7 - 2.97 µM. Moreover, 12t showed promising cytotoxicity on PC-3, HGC-27 and HeLa cell lines with IC50 values of 2.11 ± 0.27 µM, 2.21 ± 0.25 µM and 2.53 ± 0.01 µM respectively. The results from aqueous solubility test showed that compounds 12e and 12t have 1.7 and 2.8 times more aqueous solubility than curcumin. Interestingly, the most active compound 12t was found to be nearly 2 times more selective on PC-3 cells as well as safe on normal human prostate (RWPE-1) cells. In addition, compound 12t efficiently inhibited tubulin polymerization with IC50 value of 8.44 ± 0.13 µM and molecular modelling studies disclosed that 12t binds at the colchicine binding site of the tubulin. Cell cycle analysis revealed that 12t arrests PC-3 cells in G2/M phase in a dose dependant manner. Further, treatment of PC-3 cells with 12t showed typical apoptotic morphology, also led to the impairment of mitochondrial membrane potential (DΨm) and increased levels of reactive oxygen species (ROS). Altogether, the results from acridine orange/ethidium bromide (AO-EB) and DAPI staining studies, annexin V-FITC/propidium iodide staining assay, analysis of mitochondrial membrane potential (DΨm) and reactive oxygen species (ROS) levels undoubtedly demonstrated the induction of apoptosis in PC-3 cells by compound 12t.

Imidazo[1,2-a]pyridines linked with thiazoles/thiophene motif through keto spacer as potential cytotoxic agents and NF-κB inhibitors.

A series of new imidazo[1,2-a]pyridine linked with thiazole/thiophene motif through a keto spacer were synthesized and tested for their cytotoxic potential against three human cancer cell lines including A549, HeLa and U87-MG using MTT assay. Compounds A2, A3, A4, C1 and C2 showed cytotoxicity against all the three cell lines. The selectivity index for compound A4 for A549 and HeLa cells was comparable to that of doxorubicin. Among the synthesized compounds, B5 showed the maximum inhibition of NF-κB activity as ascertained by NF-κB reporter assay (IC50 = 6.5 ±â€¯0.6 µM). Treatment of NCI-H23 cells (EGFR overexpressed, KRAS G12V mutant) with erlotinib and gefitinib along with compounds A4 and B5 indicated synergistic and additive potential of combination therapy.

Discovery of curcumin inspired sulfonamide derivatives as a new class of carbonic anhydrase isoforms I, II, IX, and XII inhibitors.

A series of curcumin inspired sulfonamide derivatives was prepared from various chalcones and 4-sulfamoyl benzaldehyde via Claisen-Schmidt condensation. All new compounds were assayed as inhibitors of four human isoforms of the metalloenzyme carbonic anhydrase (hCA, EC 4.2.1.1) isoforms hCA I, II, IX and XII. Interesting inhibitory activities were observed against all these isoforms. hCA I, an isoform involved in several eye diseases was inhibited moderately with KIs in the range of 191.8-904.2 nM, hCA II, an antiglaucoma drug target was highly inhibited by the new sulfonamides, with KIs in the range of 0.75-8.8 nM. hCA IX, a tumor-associated isoform involved in cancer progression and metastatic spread was potently inhibited by the new sulfonamides, with KIs in the range of 2.3-87.3 nM, whereas hCA XII, and antiglaucoma and anticancer drug target, was inhibited with KIs in the range of 6.1-71.8 nM. It is noteworthy that one of the new compounds, 5d, was found to be almost 9 times more selective against hCA II (KI = 0.89 nM) over hCA IX and hCA XII, whereas 5e was 3 and 70 times more selective against hCA II (KI = 0.75 nM) over hCA IX and hCA XII, respectively.

Vanadium-Catalyzed Oxidative C(CO)-C(CO) Bond Cleavage for C-N Bond Formation: One-Pot Domino Transformation of 1,2-Diketones and Amidines into Imides and Amides.

A novel vanadium-catalyzed one-pot domino reaction of 1,2-diketones with amidines has been identified that enables their transformation into imides and amides. The reaction proceeds by dual acylation of amidines via oxidative C(CO)-C(CO) bond cleavage of 1,2-diketones to afford N,N'-diaroyl-N-arylbenzamidine intermediates. In the reaction, these intermediates are easily hydrolyzed into imides and amides through vanadium catalysis. This method provides a practical, simple, and mild synthetic approach to access a variety of imides as well as amides in high yields. Moreover, one-step construction of imide and amide bonds with a long-chain alkyl group is an attractive feature of this protocol.