1,2,4-OSSADIAZOLI: UTILI SCAFFOLD NEL DESIGN DI NUOVI FARMACI

Hsp60 Inhibitors and Modulators

In this chapter, we focus on the 60 KDa Heat Shock Protein (Hsp60) and discuss some of its biological, molecular and pathological features. The structural and mechanistic aspect of the Hsp60 folding cycle will be also presented. We further illustrate how Hsp60 may be involved in many diseases and therefore considered as an effective therapeutic or theranostic target. Finally, the state-of-the-art on the development of Hsp60 and bacterial GroEL inhibitors and modulators of their expression will be illustrated. This is discussed in the light of a negative chaperonotherapy, and the consequent development of inhibitors, as well as positive chaperonotherapy, in the event its excessive activity i…

Ammonium formate-Pd/C as a new reducing system for 1,2,4-oxadiazoles. Synthesis of guanidine derivatives and reductive rearrangement to quinazolin-4-ones with potential anti-diabetic activity

1,2,4-Oxadiazole is a heterocycle with wide reactivity and many useful applications. The reactive O-N bond is usually reduced using molecular hydrogen to obtain amidine derivatives. NH4CO2H-Pd/C is here demonstrated as a new system for the O-N reduction, allowing us to obtain differently substituted acylamidine, acylguanidine and diacylguanidine derivatives. The proposed system is also effective for the achievement of a reductive rearrangement of 5-(2′-aminophenyl)-1,2,4-oxadiazoles into 1-alkylquinazolin-4(1H)-ones. The alkaloid glycosine was also obtained with this method. The obtained compounds were preliminarily tested for their biological activity in terms of their cytotoxicity, induce…

Heat Shock Proteins in Alzheimer’s Disease: Role and Targeting

Among diseases whose cure is still far from being discovered, Alzheimer’s disease (AD) has been recognized as a crucial medical and social problem. A major issue in AD research is represented by the complexity of involved biochemical pathways, including the nature of protein misfolding, which results in the production of toxic species. Considering the involvement of (mis)folding processes in AD aetiology, targeting molecular chaperones represents a promising therapeutic perspective. This review analyses the connection between AD and molecular chaperones, with particular attention toward the most important heat shock proteins (HSPs) as representative components of the human chaperome: Hsp60,…

What's Curcumin's mind? The potential role of Curcuminoids in the treatment of Alzheimer's disease

Neurodegenerative diseases (NDs) are one of major public health problems and their impact is continuously growing. Curcumin has been proposed for the treatment of several of these pathologies, such as Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and Parkinson’s disease (PD) due to the ability of this molecule to reduce inflammation and aggregation of involved proteins. Nevertheless, the poor metabolic stability and bioavailability of curcumin reduce the possibilities of its practical use. In this review will be highlighted recent results on curcumin and curcuminoids in the search of new effective therapeutic agents against NDs, with particular emphasis on AD.

The dimer-monomer equilibrium of SARS-CoV-2 main protease is affected by small molecule inhibitors

AbstractThe maturation of coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, which is the etiological agent at the origin of the COVID-19 pandemic, requires a main protease Mpro to cleave the virus-encoded polyproteins. Despite a wealth of experimental information already available, there is wide disagreement about the Mpro monomer-dimer equilibrium dissociation constant. Since the functional unit of Mpro is a homodimer, the detailed knowledge of the thermodynamics of this equilibrium is a key piece of information for possible therapeutic intervention, with small molecules interfering with dimerization being potential broad-spectrum antiviral drug leads. In the present study, we exploit Small Angle X-ray Scattering (…

Bone diagenesis of archaeological human remains from Apulia (Italy) investigated by ATR-FTIR and XRF spectroscopy

The analysis of the organic and mineral content of biological samples allows to define post-mortem alterations and the preservation status of ancient human remains. Here, we report a physical-chemical characterization of bone specimens from some skeletal remains found in Apulia (Italy) dating back to the prehistoric, classic-hellenistic, and medieval periods. Specific infrared band ratios from Attenuated Total Reflectance-Fourier Transform InfraRed and X-ray fluorescence spectroscopies were considered to evaluate the extent of the diagenetic process and the elemental composition of bone.Physical-chemical post-mortem transformations were related to the soil composition and specificity of tis…

Curcumin as Scaffold for Drug Discovery against Neurodegenerative Diseases

Neurodegenerative diseases (NDs) are one of major public health problems and their impact is continuously growing. Curcumin has been proposed for the treatment of several of these pathologies, such as Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and Parkinson’s disease (PD) due to the ability of this molecule to reduce inflammation and aggregation of involved proteins. Nevertheless, the poor metabolic stability and bioavailability of curcumin reduce the possibilities of its practical use. For these reasons, many curcumin derivatives were synthetized in order to overcome some limitations. In this review will be highlighted recent results on modification of curcumin scaffold in the search of new effective therap…