Browsing by Author "Cantero, Jorge"

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    Expanding the chemical space of aryloxy-naphthoquinones as potential anti-Chagasic agents: synthesis and trypanosomicidal activity
    (SPRINGER BIRKHAUSER, 2021) Becerra, Nohemi A.; Espinosa Bustos, Christian; Vazquez, Karina; Rivera, Gildardo; Paulino, Margot; Cantero, Jorge; Nogueda, Benjamin; Chacon Vargas, Fabiola; Castillo Velazquez, Uziel; Elizondo Rodriguez, Ana F.; Toledo, Sofia; Moreno Rodriguez, Adriana; Aranda, Mario; Salas, Cristian O.
    In continuation our effort to research the chemical space of aryloxy-naphthoquinones as potential anti-Chagas agents, we synthesized nine derivatives and these compounds were evaluated in vitro against the epimastigote and trypomastigote forms of Mexican strains of Trypanosoma cruzi (T. cruzi). Most of these derivatives are highly active against epimastigote forms (IC50 < 1.0 mu M) compared to the reference drug benznidazole (Bzn). Then these were evaluated on trypomastigotes, which is showing better potency results than Bzn for compounds 3b and 3g. In addition, the cytotoxicity of these compounds was determined on the murine macrophage cell line J774. 3b and 3i were the most selective compounds against NINOA trypomastigote and INC-5 epimastigote forms, respectively. Further these compounds also have good oral bioavailability according to theoretical predictions. Finally, we were able to determine optimal substitution patterns using pharmacophoric models. All these results are provided very useful structural information to continue our designing of naphthoquinone derivatives against T. cruzi.
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    New Smoothened ligands based on the purine scaffold as potential agents for treating pancreatic cancer
    (2024) Espinosa-Bustos, Christian; Bertrand, Jeanluc; Villegas-Menares, Alondra; Guerrero, Simon; Di Marcotullio, Lucia; Navacci, Shirin; Schulte, Gunnar; Kozielewicz, Pawel; Bloch, Nicolas; Villela, Valentina; Paulino, Margot; Kogan, Marcelo J.; Cantero, Jorge; Salas, Cristian O.
    Aberrant activation of the Hedgehog (Hh) signalling pathway has been associated with the development and progression of pancreatic cancer. For this reason, blockade of Hh pathway by inhibitors targeting the G proteincoupled receptor Smoothened (SMO) has been considered as a therapeutic target for the treatment of this cancer. In our previous work, we obtained a new SMO ligand based on a purine scaffold (compound I), which showed interesting antitumor activity in several cancer cell lines. In this work, we report the design and synthesis of 17 new purine derivatives, some of which showed high cytotoxic effect on Mia-PaCa-2 (Hh-dependent pancreatic cancer cell lines) and low toxicity on non-neoplastic HEK-293 cells compared with gemcitabine, such as 8f, 8g and 8h (IC50 = 4.56, 4.11 and 3.08 mu M, respectively). Two of these purines also showed their ability to bind to SMO through NanoBRET assays (pKi = 5.17 for 8f and 5.01 for 8h), with higher affinities to compound I (pKi = 1.51). In addition, docking studies provided insight the purine substitution pattern is related to the affinity on SMO. Finally, studies of Hh inhibition for selected purines, using a transcriptional functional assay based on luciferase activity in NIH3T3 Shh-Light II cells, demonstrated that 8g reduced GLI activity with a IC50 = 6.4 mu M as well as diminished the expression of Hh target genes in two specific Hh-dependent cell models, Med1 cells and Ptch1- /- mouse embryonic fibroblasts. Therefore, our results provide a platform for the design of SMO ligands that could be potential selective cytotoxic agents for the treatment of pancreatic cancer.