Discovery of a benzothiophene-flavonol halting miltefosine and antimonial drug resistance in Leishmania parasites through the application of medicinal chemistry, screening and genomics
作者:Chiara Borsari、María Dolores Jiménez-Antón、Julia Eick、Eugenia Bifeld、Juan José Torrado、Ana Isabel Olías-Molero、María Jesús Corral、Nuno Santarem、Catarina Baptista、Leda Severi、Sheraz Gul、Markus Wolf、Maria Kuzikov、Bernhard Ellinger、Jeanette Reinshagen、Gesa Witt、Pasquale Linciano、Annalisa Tait、Luca Costantino、Rosaria Luciani、Paloma Tejera Nevado、Dorothea Zander-Dinse、Caio H. Franco、Stefania Ferrari、Carolina B. Moraes、Anabela Cordeiro-da-Silva、Glauco Ponterini、Joachim Clos、José María Alunda、Maria Paola Costi
DOI:10.1016/j.ejmech.2019.111676
日期:2019.12
Leishmaniasis, a major health problem worldwide, has a limited arsenal of drugs for its control. The appearance of resistance to first- and second-line anti-leishmanial drugs confirms the need to develop new and less toxic drugs that overcome spontaneous resistance. In the present study, we report the design and synthesis of a novel library of 38 flavonol-like compounds and their evaluation in a panel of assays encompassing parasite killing, pharmacokinetics, genomics and ADME-Toxicity resulting in the progression of a compound in the drug discovery value chain. Compound 19, 2-(benzo[b]thiophen-3-yl)3-hydroxy-6-methoxy-4H-chromen-4-one, exhibited a broad-spectrum activity against Leishmania spp. (EC50 1.9 mu M for Leishmania infantum, 3.4 mu M 4 for L. donovani, 6.7 mu M for L. major), Trypanosoma cruzi (EC50 7.5 mu M) and T. brucei (EC50 0.8 mu M). Focusing on anti-Leishmania activity, compound 19 challenge in vitro did not select for resistance markers in L donovani, while a Cos-Seq screening for dominant resistance genes identified a gene locus on chromosome 36 that became ineffective at concentrations beyond EC50 Thus, compound 19 is a promising scaffold to tackle drug resistance in Leishmania infection. In vivo pharmacokinetic studies indicated that compound 19 has a long half-life (intravenous (IV): 63.2 h; per os (PO): 46.9 h) with an acceptable ADME-Toxicity profile. When tested in Leishmania infected hamsters, no toxicity and limited efficacy were observed. Low solubility and degradation were investigated spectroscopically as possible causes for the sub-optimal pharmacokinetic properties. Compound 19 resulted a specific compound based on the screening against a protein set, following the intrinsic fluorescence changes. (C) 2019 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.