naphthoquinones and 1-4-anthraquinone

Leishmania is the aethiological agent responsible for the visceral leishmaniasis, a serious parasite-borne disease widely spread all over the World. The emergence of resistant strains makes classical treatments less effective; therefore, new and better drugs are necessary. Naphthoquinones are interesting compounds for which many pharmacological properties have been described, including leishmanicidal activity. This work shows the antileishmanial effect of two series of terpenyl-1,4-naphthoquinones (NQ) and 1,4-anthraquinones (AQ) obtained from natural terpenoids, such as myrcene and myrceocommunic acid. They were evaluated both in vitro and ex vivo against the transgenic iRFP-Leishmania infantum strain and also tested on liver HepG2 cells to determine their selectivity indexes. The results indicated that NQ derivatives showed better antileishmanial activity than AQ analogues, and among them, compounds with a diacetylated hydroquinone moiety provided better results than their corresponding quinones. Regarding the terpenic precursor, compounds obtained from the monoterpenoid myrcene displayed good antiparasitic efficiency and low cytotoxicity for mammalian cells, whereas those derived from the diterpenoid showed better antileishmanial activity without selectivity. In order to explore their mechanism of action, all the compounds have been tested as potential inhibitors of Leishmania type IB DNA topoisomerases, but only some compounds that displayed the quinone ring were able to inhibit the recombinant enzyme in vitro. This fact together with the docking studies performed on LTopIB suggested the existence of another mechanism of action, alternative or complementary to LTopIB inhibition. In silico druglikeness and ADME evaluation of the best leishmanicidal compounds has shown good predictable druggability.

Topics: Animals; Anthraquinones; Antiprotozoal Agents; Camptothecin; DNA Topoisomerases; Drug Resistance; Female; Hep G2 Cells; Humans; Leishmania infantum; Leishmaniasis, Visceral; Macrophages; Mice; Mice, Inbred BALB C; Molecular Docking Simulation; Naphthoquinones; Quinones; Spleen; Topoisomerase Inhibitors

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are environmental pollutants that are converted to cytotoxic and carcinogenic metabolites, quinones, by detoxifying enzyme systems in animals. PAH metabolites such as the quinones can form Michael adducts with biological macromolecules containing reactive nucleophiles, making detection of exposure to PAHs difficult using conventional techniques. A technique has been developed for detecting exposure to PAHs. Tetramethylammonium hydroxide (TMAH) thermochemolysis coupled with GC/MS is proposed as an assay method for PAH quinones that have formed Michael adducts with biological molecules. Three PAH quinones (1,4-naphthoquinone, 1,2-naphthoquinone, and 1,4-anthraquinone) and 1,4-benzoquinone were reacted with cysteine, and the TMAH thermochemolysis method was used to assay for both thiol and amine adduction between the quinones and the cysteine. Additional studies with 1,4-naphthoquinone adducts to glutathione and bovine serum albumin showed the same thiol and amine TMAH thermochemolysis products with larger peptides as was observed with cysteine adducts. The TMAH GC/MS method clearly shows great promise for detecting PAH quinones, produced by enzymatic conversion of PAHs in biological systems, that have been converted to respective Michael adducts.

Topics: Animals; Anthraquinones; Benzoquinones; Cattle; Cysteine; Evaluation Studies as Topic; France; Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry; Glutathione; Molecular Structure; Naphthoquinones; Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons; Quaternary Ammonium Compounds; Serum Albumin, Bovine