No description available.

No description available.

Le paludisme et la schistosomiase sont des maladies parasitaires tropicales qui affectent plus de 800 millions de personnes dans le monde, notamment dans des pays en voie de développement. Bien qu’il existe des traitements contre ces infections, de nombreuses résistances à ces dernières sont apparues les dernières décennies. Malgré « l’urgence humanitaire », l’industrie pharmaceutique n’est que très peu investie dans la conception et le développement de nouvelles thérapies pour ces maladies dites « de la pauvreté ». Afin de trouver des nouveaux candidat-médicaments contre ces parasites, une librairie de 3- benzyl-2-méthylnaphtoquinones portant différents substituants sur la partie benzylique avait été précédemment développée au sein du laboratoire d’accueil. Malgré la puissante activité antipaludique d’une molécule identifiée comme tête de série, il n’y avait pas de guérison totale des souris infectées, suggérant que les naphtoquinones sont rapidement métabolisées en milieu biologique. Une plateforme de synthèse a été établie permettant d’obtenir de façon relativement simple des nouvelles naphtoquinones avec des substituants divers sur la partie aromatique, et ainsi, améliorer leurs propriétés pharmacocinétiques, d’une part en augmentant leur demie-vie, leur solubilité, et leur biodisponibilité dans les milieux biologiques, d’autre part en modifiant leurs potentiels redox, et en étudiant les métabolites actifs. L’ensemble de ce travail nous a permis de synthétiser une cinquantaine de nouvelles naphtoquinones et ainsi d’obtenir les premières connaissances des relations structure/activité, qui serviront en infochimie à développer des outils de prédiction pour la chimie médicinale redox. / Malaria and schistosomiasis are tropical parasitic diseases, which affect more than 800 million people worldwide, especially in developing countries. Multidrug-resistance of malarial strains toward broadly used antimalarial drug treatment (e.g. chloroquine, quinine) has spread all over the world in the last five decades. Despite the humanitarian emergency, pharmaceutical industries are not investing in the research and production of new therapies for diseases of poverty.In order to develop new potential ethical drugs against these parasites, a library of polysubstituted 3-benzyl-2-methylnaphthoquine derivatives functionalized at the benzylic core were previously synthetized in the host laboratory. Despite the strong antimalarial activity of an identified lead compound, the infected mice were not totally cured, suggesting that the naphthoquinones are rapidly metabolized under biological conditions.A platform of synthetic methodologies has been established in order to produce, via straightforward routes, new polysubstituted benzylmenadione derivatives functionalized at the aromatic ring of the naphthoquinone core, and to improve their pharmacokinetic properties by (i) increasing their half-life, solubility, bioavailability, (ii) modifying their redox potentials, and (iii) studying their active metabolites. The synthetic methodologies exemplified with 50 described compounds provide the structure–activity relationships as the basis for the development of new cheminformatics tools to be used in redox medicinal chemistry .

No / AQ4N (banoxantrone) is a prodrug that, under hypoxic conditions, is enzymatically converted to a cytotoxic DNA-binding agent, AQ4. Incorporation of AQ4N into conventional chemoradiation protocols therefore targets both oxygenated and hypoxic regions of tumors, and potentially will increase the effectiveness of therapy. This current pharmacodynamic and efficacy study was designed to quantify tumor exposure to AQ4 following treatment with AQ4N, and to relate exposure to outcome of treatment. A single dose of 60 mg/kg AQ4N enhanced the response of RT112 (bladder) and Calu-6 (lung) xenografts to treatment with cisplatin and radiation therapy. AQ4N was also given to separate cohorts of tumor-bearing mice 24 hours before tumor excision for subsequent analysis of metabolite levels. AQ4 was detected by high performance liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry in all treated samples of RT112 and Calu-6 tumors at mean concentrations of 0.23 and 1.07 microg/g, respectively. These concentrations are comparable with those shown to be cytotoxic in vitro. AQ4-related nuclear fluorescence was observed in all treated tumors by confocal microscopy, which correlated with the high performance liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry data. The presence of the hypoxic marker Glut-1 was shown by immunohistochemistry in both Calu-6 tumors and RT112 tumors, and colocalization of AQ4 fluorescence and Glut-1 staining strongly suggested that AQ4N was activated in these putatively hypoxic areas. This is the first demonstration that AQ4N will increase the efficacy of chemoradiotherapy in preclinical models; the intratumoral levels of AQ4 found in this study are comparable with tumor AQ4 levels found in a recent phase I clinical study, which suggests that these levels could be potentially therapeutic.

Sleeping sickness, caused by Trypanosoma brucei, is a deadly disease that affects some of the poorest countries in sub-Saharan Africa. Although the disease prevalence is declining, strengthening of the current control efforts, including introduction of more adequate chemotherapeutic options, is needed to prevent the re-emergence of yet another epidemic. Nitroaromatic compounds, such as nifurtimox (in combination with eflornithine) and fexinidazole (in clinical trials), have been recently introduced for the treatment of the second stage of sleeping sickness. These compounds are believed to act as pro-drugs that require intracellular enzymatic activation for antimicrobial activity. Here, the role of the bacterial-like nitroreductase TbNTR as a nitrodrug activating enzyme is examined through overexpression and knock-out studies in T. brucei. Multiple attempts to purify soluble recombinant TbNTR from E. coli were unsuccessful, because the recombinant protein was found to be membrane associated. In keeping with the role of TbNTR in nitrodrug activation, loss of an NTR gene copy in T. brucei was found to be one, but not the only, mechanism that may lead to nitrodrug resistance. Furthermore, in the bloodstream form of T. brucei, resistance was relatively easy to select for nifurtimox, with no concurrent loss of virulence and at clinically relevant levels. More worryingly, nifurtimox resistance led to a decreased sensitivity of these parasites to other nitroaromatic compounds, including a high level of cross-resistance to fexinidazole. Conversely, generation of fexinidazole resistance resulted in cross-resistance to nifurtimox. Should these findings translate to the field, emerging nitrodrug resistance could reverse all recent advances in the treatment of sleeping sickness, made since the introduction of eflornithine 20 years ago. Therefore, all efforts should be made to ensure nitroaromatic drugs are used only in drug combination therapies against sleeping sickness, in order to protect them from emerging resistance.

A Malária continua sendo a mais difundida e devastadora doença infecciosa, com aproximadamente 300 milhões de casos anuais e mais de 2 milhões de pessoas vivendo em áreas de risco. Entre os parasitas do gênero plasmodium causadores da malária em humanos, o plasmodium falciparum é a espécie mais letal. Este projeto teve como objetivo a síntese de pró-fármaco recíproco de cloroquina e primaquina e de pró-fármacos duplicados de cloroquina e de primaquina utilizando, para tanto, espaçantes inespecíficos (carboxílicos). Espera-se que o pró-fármaco recíproco permita a cura radical em casos de malária vivax e que os derivados duplicados apresentem maior eficácia, com diminuição da toxicidade, especialmente no caso do derivado de primaquina. Além desses compostos, propôs-se a síntese de pró-fármacos duplicados de cloroquina mediante a ligação com grupo espaçante específico (peptídeos) à cisão pela falcipaína. Tais derivados são potencialmente ativos em malária causada pelo P. falciparum resistente à cloroquina. / Malaria remains the world\'s most widespread and devastating infectious disease, with approximately 300 million annual cases and more than 2 million casualties. Among the protozoan parasites of the genus Plasmodium causing malaria in humans, Plasmodium falciparum is the most lethal species. This project had as objective the synthesis of reciprocal prodrug of chloroqine and primaquine using, for in such a way, inespecífics agents (carboxylics). One expects that the mutual prodrug allows to the radical cure in cases of malaria vivax and that the derivatives duplicates present greater effectiveness, with reduction of the toxicity, especially in the case of the primaquine derivative. Beyond these composites, it was considered synthesis of mutual prodrugs of chloroquine by means of the linking with specific carrier group (peptides) to the split for falcipain. Such derivatives are potentially active in malaria caused for the resistant P. falciparum to the chloroquine.

A Malária continua sendo a mais difundida e devastadora doença infecciosa, com aproximadamente 300 milhões de casos anuais e mais de 2 milhões de pessoas vivendo em áreas de risco. Entre os parasitas do gênero plasmodium causadores da malária em humanos, o plasmodium falciparum é a espécie mais letal. Este projeto teve como objetivo a síntese de pró-fármaco recíproco de cloroquina e primaquina e de pró-fármacos duplicados de cloroquina e de primaquina utilizando, para tanto, espaçantes inespecíficos (carboxílicos). Espera-se que o pró-fármaco recíproco permita a cura radical em casos de malária vivax e que os derivados duplicados apresentem maior eficácia, com diminuição da toxicidade, especialmente no caso do derivado de primaquina. Além desses compostos, propôs-se a síntese de pró-fármacos duplicados de cloroquina mediante a ligação com grupo espaçante específico (peptídeos) à cisão pela falcipaína. Tais derivados são potencialmente ativos em malária causada pelo P. falciparum resistente à cloroquina. / Malaria remains the world\'s most widespread and devastating infectious disease, with approximately 300 million annual cases and more than 2 million casualties. Among the protozoan parasites of the genus Plasmodium causing malaria in humans, Plasmodium falciparum is the most lethal species. This project had as objective the synthesis of reciprocal prodrug of chloroqine and primaquine using, for in such a way, inespecífics agents (carboxylics). One expects that the mutual prodrug allows to the radical cure in cases of malaria vivax and that the derivatives duplicates present greater effectiveness, with reduction of the toxicity, especially in the case of the primaquine derivative. Beyond these composites, it was considered synthesis of mutual prodrugs of chloroquine by means of the linking with specific carrier group (peptides) to the split for falcipain. Such derivatives are potentially active in malaria caused for the resistant P. falciparum to the chloroquine.

No description available.