Rolando Flamand Rodríguez y yo fuimos compañeros de la secundaria y preparatoria en los mismos grupos; además, nos unía un gusto especial por el “fut”. Rolando (pasado de peso) jugaba de portero, no ...paraba “ni un taxi”, pero la pasábamos bien, sobre todo cuando me invitaba a comer a su casa. Una ocasión, a finales de la secundaria, en su casa se celebraba que el “cerebrito” de la casa (Eugenio) había sido aceptado como cadete en la Escuela Médico Militar…
The parasite Trichomonas vaginalis is the etiologic agent of trichomoniasis, the most common non-viral sexually transmitted disease worldwide. This infection often remains asymptomatic and is related ...to several health complications. The traditional treatment for trichomoniasis is the use of drugs of the 5-nitroimidazole family, such as metronidazole; however, scientific reports indicate an increasing number of drug-resistant strains. Benzimidazole derivatives could offer an alternative in the search for new anti-trichomonas drugs. In this sense, two attractive candidates are the compounds O2N-BZM7 and O2N-BZM9 (1H-benzimidazole derivatives), since, through in vitro tests, they have shown a higher trichomonacide activity. In this study, we determined the effect on the expression level of metabolic genes in T. vaginalis. The results show that genes involved in redox balance (NADHOX, G6PD::6PGL) are overexpressed, as well as the gene that participates in the first reaction of glycolysis (CK); on the other hand, structural genes such as ACT and TUB are decreased in expression in trophozoites treated with the compound O2N-BZM9, which would probably affect its morphology, motility and virulence. These results align with the trichomonacidal activity of the compounds, with benzimidazole O2N-BZM9 being the most potent, with an IC50 value of 4.8 μM. These results are promising for potential future therapeutic applications.
Metronidazole (MTZ) is the most common drug used against Trichomonas vaginalis (T. vaginalis) infections; however, treatment failures and high rates of recurrence of trichomoniasis have been ...reported, suggesting the presence of resistance in T. vaginalis to MTZ. Therefore, research into new therapeutic options against T. vaginalis infections has become increasingly urgent. This study investigated the trichomonacidal activity of a series of five imidazole carbamate compounds (AGR-1, AGR-2, AGR-3, AGR-4, and AGR-5) through in vitro susceptibility assays to determine the IC50 value of each compound. All five compounds demonstrated potent trichomonacidal activity, with IC50 values in the nanomolar range and AGR-2 being the most potent (IC50 400 nM). To gain insight into molecular events related to AGR-induced cell death in T. vaginalis, we analyzed the expression profiles of some metabolic genes in the trophozoites exposed to AGR compounds and MTZ. It was found that both AGR and MTZ compounds reduced the expression of the glycolytic genes (CK, PFK, TPI, and ENOL) and genes involved in metabolism (G6PD, TKT, TALDO, NADHOX, ACT, and TUB), suggesting that disturbing these key metabolic genes alters the survival of the T. vaginalis parasite and that they probably share a similar mechanism of action. Additionally, the compounds showed low cytotoxicity in the Caco-2 and HT29 cell lines, and the results of the ADMET analysis indicated that these compounds have pharmacokinetic properties similar to those of MTZ. The findings offer significant insights that can serve as a basis for future in vivo studies of the compounds as a potential new treatment against T. vaginalis.
Protozoan parasites, such as
and
, cause the most prevalent infections in humans in developing countries and provoke significant morbidity and mortality in endemic countries. Despite its ...side-effects, metronidazole is still the drug of choice as a giardiacidal and trichomonacidal tissue-active agent. However, the emergence of metronidazole resistance and its evolved strategies of parasites to evade innate host defenses have hindered the identification and development of new therapeutic strategies against these parasites. Here, we tested five synthesized benzimidazole derivatives as possible drugs for treating giardiasis and trichomoniasis, probing the bifunctional enzyme glucose 6-phosphate dehydrogenase::6-phosphogluconolactone from
(GlG6PD::6PGL) and
(TvG6PD::6PGL) as a drug target. The investigated benzimidazole derivatives were
,
,
,
, and
. The recombinant enzymes were used in inhibition assays, and in silico computational predictions and spectroscopic studies were applied to follow the structural alteration of the enzymes and identify the possible mechanism of inhibition. We identified two potent benzimidazole compounds (
and
), which are capable of inhibiting both protozoan G6PD::6PGL enzymes and in vitro assays with these parasites, showing that these compounds also affect their viability. These results demonstrate that other therapeutic targets of the compounds are the enzymes GlG6PD::6PGL and TvG6PD::6PGL, which contribute to their antiparasitic effect and their possible use in antigiardial and trichomonacidal therapies.
Giardiasis is a diarrheal disease that is highly prevalent in developing countries. Several drugs are available for the treatment of this parasitosis; however, failures in drug therapy are common, ...and have adverse effects and increased resistance of the parasite to the drug, generating the need to find new alternative treatments. In this study, we synthesized a series of 2-mercaptobenzimidazoles that are derivatives of omeprazole, and the chemical structures were confirmed through mass,
H NMR, and
C NMR techniques. The in vitro efficacy compounds against
, as well as its effect on the inhibition of triosephosphate isomerase (TPI) recombinant, were investigated, the inactivation assays were performed with 0.2 mg/mL of the enzyme incubating for 2 h at 37 °C in TE buffer, pH 7.4 with increasing concentrations of the compounds. Among the target compounds,
,
, and
had greater antigiardial activity (IC
: 36, 14, and 17 µM on trophozoites), and inhibited the TPI enzyme (
: 2.3, 3.2, and 2.8 M
s
) respectively, loading alterations on the secondary structure, global stability, and tertiary structure of the TPI protein. Finally, we demonstrated that it had low toxicity on Caco-2 and HT29 cells. This finding makes it an attractive potential starting point for new antigiardial drugs.
Giardiasis, which is caused by
infection, is a relevant cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide. Because no vaccines are currently available to treat giardiasis, chemotherapeutic drugs are the ...main options for controlling infection. Evidence has shown that the nitro drug nitazoxanide (NTZ) is a commonly prescribed treatment for giardiasis; however, the mechanisms underlying NTZ's antigiardial activity are not well-understood. Herein, we identified the glucose-6-phosphate::6-phosphogluconate dehydrogenase (GlG6PD::6PGL) fused enzyme as a nitazoxanide target, as NTZ behaves as a GlG6PD::6PGL catalytic inhibitor. Furthermore, fluorescence assays suggest alterations in the stability of GlG6PD::6PGL protein, whereas the results indicate a loss of catalytic activity due to conformational and folding changes. Molecular docking and dynamic simulation studies suggest a model of NTZ binding on the active site of the G6PD domain and near the structural NADP
binding site. The findings of this study provide a novel mechanistic basis and strategy for the antigiardial activity of the NTZ drug.
A possible inhibitor of proteases, which contains an indole core and an aromatic polar acetylene, was designed and synthesized. This indole derivative has a molecular architecture kindred to ...biologically relevant species and was obtained through five synthetic steps with an overall yield of 37% from the 2,2′-(phenylazanediyl)di(ethan-1-ol). The indole derivative was evaluated through docking assays using the main protease (SARS-CoV-2-Mpro) as a molecular target, which plays a key role in the replication process of this virus. Additionally, the indole derivative was evaluated as an inhibitor of the enzyme kallikrein 5 (KLK5), which is a serine protease that can be considered as an anticancer drug target.
The new polyheterocyclic compound, 2-benzyl-7-(4-chlorophenyl)-3-morpholino-6-((1-phenyl-1H-1,2,3-triazol-4-yl)methyl)-6,7-dihydro-5H-pyrrolo3,4-bpyridin-5-one, was synthesized by a sequential ...combination of 4-chlorobenzaldehyde, (1-phenyl-1H-1,2,3-triazol-4-yl)methanamine, 2-isocyano-1-morpholino-3-phenylpropan-1-one, and maleic anhydride under a microwave-assisted one-pot process Ugi-Zhu/aza Diels-Alder cycloaddition/N-acylation/decarboxylation/dehydration with a 28% overall yield. The synthesized compound was fully characterized by 1D (1H, 13C) and 2D (COSY, HSQC, and HMBC) NMR, FT-IR, and HRMS.
Gliomas are heterogeneous, solid, and intracranial tumors that originate from glial cells. Malignant cells from the tumor undergo metabolic alterations to obtain the energy required for proliferation ...and the invasion of the cerebral parenchyma. The alterations in the expression of the genes related to the metabolic pathways can be detected in biopsies of gliomas of different CNS WHO grades. In this study, we evaluated the expression of 16 candidate reference genes in the HMC3 microglia cell line. Then, statistical algorithms such as BestKeeper, the comparative ΔC
method, geNorm, NormFinder, and RefFinder were applied to obtain the genes most suitable to be considered as references for measuring the levels of expression in glioma samples. The results show that
and
are two novel genes suitable for genic expression studies on gliomas. Finally, we analyzed the expression of genes involved in metabolic pathways in clinical samples of brain gliomas of different CNS WHO grades. RT-qPCR analysis showed that in CNS WHO grade 3 and 4 gliomas, the expression levels of
,
,
,
,
,
,
,
, and
were higher than those of CNS WHO grade 1 and 2 glioma biopsies. Hence, our results suggest that reference genes from metabolic pathways have different expression profiles depending on the stratification of gliomas and constitute a potential model for studying the development of this type of tumor and the search for molecular targets to treat gliomas.
The parasite Trichomonas vaginalis is the etiologic agent of trichomoniasis, the most common non-viral sexually transmitted disease worldwide. This infection often remains asymptomatic and is related ...to several health complications. The traditional treatment for trichomoniasis is the use of drugs of the 5-nitroimidazole family, such as metronidazole; however, scientific reports indicate an increasing number of drug-resistant strains. Benzimidazole derivatives could offer an alternative in the search for new anti-trichomonas drugs. In this sense, two attractive candidates are the compounds O2N-BZM7 and O2N-BZM9 (1H-benzimidazole derivatives), since, through in vitro tests, they have shown a higher trichomonacide activity. In this study, we determined the effect on the expression level of metabolic genes in T. vaginalis. The results show that genes involved in redox balance (NADHOX, G6PD::6PGL) are overexpressed, as well as the gene that participates in the first reaction of glycolysis (CK); on the other hand, structural genes such as ACT and TUB are decreased in expression in trophozoites treated with the compound O2N-BZM9, which would probably affect its morphology, motility and virulence. These results align with the trichomonacidal activity of the compounds, with benzimidazole O2N-BZM9 being the most potent, with an ICsub.50 value of 4.8 μM. These results are promising for potential future therapeutic applications.
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