piperine and piperic-acid

A set of 12 analogues of piperine was designed, replacing the amide functional group of the molecule with different aliphatic and aromatic ester functional groups. Molecular docking studies of these molecules with FDA-approved target proteins for anti-bacterial drugs were done. The binding energy of the proteins and the ligands were low and the analogues were found to be drug-like based on the ADME results; hence, the molecules were synthesized. The synthesized compounds were tested for their anti-bacterial property against six bacterial species via Agar well-diffusion method. Acinetobacter baumannii, Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Enterococcus faecalis and Staphylococcus epidermidis were the strains tested. The overall susceptibility is higher in gram-positive. The analogues showed better activity than piperine. The analogues, propyl piperic ester (P3) and 2-fluorophenyl piperic ester (P9) and 4-fluorophenyl piperic ester (P10) showed comparatively bigger inhibition zones for all the strains.

Topics: Alkaloids; Anti-Bacterial Agents; Benzodioxoles; Fatty Acids, Unsaturated; Humans; Microbial Sensitivity Tests; Microbial Viability; Molecular Docking Simulation; Molecular Structure; Piperidines; Polyunsaturated Alkamides; Structure-Activity Relationship

Endoplasmic reticulum (ER) is the key organelle involved in protein folding and maturation. Emerging studies implicate the role of ER stress in the development of chronic kidney disease. Thus, there is an urgent need for compounds that could ameliorate ER stress and prevent CKD. Piperine and its analogs have been reported to exhibit multiple pharmacological activities; however, their efficacy against ER stress in kidney cells has not been studied yet. Hence, the goal of this study was to synthesize amide-substituted piperine analogs and screen them for pharmacological activity to relieve ER stress using an in vitro model of tunicamycin-induced ER stress using normal rat kidney (NRK-52E) cells. Five amide-substituted piperine analogs were synthesized and their chemical structures were elucidated by pertinent spectroscopic techniques. An in vitro model of ER stress was developed using tunicamycin, and the compounds of interest were screened for their effect on cell viability, and the expression of ER chaperone GRP78, the pro-apoptotic ER stress marker CHOP, and apoptotic caspases 3 and 12 (via western blotting). Our findings indicate that exposure to tunicamycin (0.5 μg/mL) for 2 h induces the expression of GRP78 and CHOP, and apoptotic markers (caspase-3 and caspase-12) and causes a significant reduction in renal cell viability. Pre-treatment of cells with piperine and its cyclohexylamino analog decreased the tunicamycin-induced upregulation of GRP78 and CHOP and cell death. Taken together, our findings demonstrate that piperine and its analogs differentially regulate ER stress, and thus represent potential therapeutic agents to treat ER stress-related renal disorders. Graphical Abstract Piperine (PIP) reduces the expression of ER stress markers (GRP78 and CHOP) induced by pathologic stimuli and consequently decreases the activation of apoptotic caspase-12 and caspase-3; all of which contributes to its chemical chaperone and cytoprotective properties to protect renal cells against ER stress and ER stress-induced cell death, and would ultimately prevent the development of chronic kidney disease.

Topics: Alkaloids; Amides; Animals; Apoptosis; Benzodioxoles; Caspase 12; Caspase 3; Cell Line; Cell Survival; Endoplasmic Reticulum; Endoplasmic Reticulum Chaperone BiP; Endoplasmic Reticulum Stress; Fatty Acids, Unsaturated; Heat-Shock Proteins; Piperidines; Polyunsaturated Alkamides; Rats; Structure-Activity Relationship; Transcription Factor CHOP; Tunicamycin; Up-Regulation

A total of eighteen piperic acid (PA) and 4-ethylpiperic acid (EPA) amides (C1-C18) with α-, β- and γ-amino acids were synthesized, characterized and evaluated for their efflux pump inhibitory activity against ciprofloxacin resistant Staphylococcus aureus. The amides were screened against NorA overexpressing S. aureus SA-1199B and wild type S. aureus SA-1199 using ethidium bromide as NorA efflux pump substrate. EPI C6 was found to be most potent and reduced the MIC of ciprofloxacin by 16 fold followed by C18 which showed 4 fold reduction of MIC. Ethidium bromide efflux inhibition and accumulation assay proved these compounds as NorA inhibitors.

Topics: Amides; Amino Acids; Anti-Bacterial Agents; Bacterial Proteins; Ciprofloxacin; Drug Resistance, Bacterial; Fatty Acids, Unsaturated; Microbial Sensitivity Tests; Multidrug Resistance-Associated Proteins; Staphylococcus aureus; Structure-Activity Relationship

Nineteen novel piperine based triazoles have been synthesized using click chemistry approach and were tested for in vivo anti-inflammatory activity. The most active compounds were evaluated for in vitro TNF-α expression. Compounds 3g and 3f were found to show significant in vivo inhibition of inflammation, 80.40% and 76.71%, respectively after 5 h in comparison to piperine (54.72%) and the standard drug indomethacin (77.02%) without causing any damage to the stomach. Compounds 3g and 3f suppressed TNF-α level by 73.73% and 70.64%, respectively and protein expression of COX-2, NF-κB and TNF-α more than indomethacin. Moreover, the compound 3g was found to show significant analgesic activity of 54.09% which was comparable with the indomethacin (57.43%).

Topics: Analgesics; Animals; Anti-Inflammatory Agents, Non-Steroidal; Anti-Ulcer Agents; Cell Line; Cell Survival; Click Chemistry; Dose-Response Relationship, Drug; Drug Design; Fatty Acids, Unsaturated; Mice; Models, Molecular; Molecular Structure; Piper nigrum; Rats; Rats, Wistar; Stomach Ulcer; Structure-Activity Relationship; Triazoles

Piperine is a secondary metabolite of black pepper. Its uses in medicine were already studied. However, its derivatives have not gained considerable attention. In the presented study, the Lipoxygenase (LOX) inhibitory activity of piperine and its derivatives, piperonylic acid, piperic acid, and piperonal have been assessed and compared by enzyme kinetics, ITC and molecular modeling experiments. The presented investigations expressed that all the studied compounds inhibited LOX by binding at its active site. The IC(50) values of these compounds were deduced from the kinetics data and found to be 85.79, 43.065, 45.17, and 50.78 μm for piperine, piperonylic acid, piperic acid, and piperonal, respectively. The binding free energies obtained from ITC experiments were -7.47, -8.33, -8.09, and -7.86 kcal/mol for piperine, piperonylic acid, piperic acid, and piperonal, respectively. Similarly, the glide scores obtained for piperine, piperonylic acid, piperic acid, and piperonal were -7.28, -10.32, -10.72, and -9.57 kcal/mol, respectively. The results of ITC and molecular modeling experiments suggested that piperonylic acid and piperonal exhibit stronger binding at the active site than piperine does. From the presented studies, it could be concluded that derivatives of piperine may be of higher significance than piperine for certain medicinal applications, implicating (Ayurvedic) fermented herbal drugs with piperine in them.

Topics: Alkaloids; Benzaldehydes; Benzoates; Benzodioxoles; Catalytic Domain; Computer Simulation; Fatty Acids, Unsaturated; Glycine max; Humans; Lipoxygenase; Lipoxygenase Inhibitors; Models, Molecular; Piper nigrum; Piperidines; Polyunsaturated Alkamides; Protein Binding