Latest ArticlesThe urate transporter 1 (URAT1) which controls urate reabsorption is a membrane transporter in the apical membrane of human renal proximal tubule epithelial cells. It was found that about 90% of patients suffer from hyperuricemia due to insufficient uric acid excretion. Therefore, the development of URAT1 inhibitors that can reduce the level of serum uric acid in vivo by enhancing renal urate excretion has been a hot spot in seeking anti-gout drugs in recent years. In this article, the representative URAT1 inhibitors with uric acid-lowering or anti-gout effects are reviewed, and related medicinal chemical strategies are analyzed, hoping to provide valuable insights into the discovery of new URAT1 inhibitors.
Hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection is a serious global public health problem. Chronic hepatitis B virus infection can cause health problems such as cirrhosis, liver metabolism disorders and hepatocellular carcinoma. Nucloes(t)ide analogues and interferon drugs used to treat chronic HBV infection do not completely eradicate covalently closed circular DNA (cccDNA) and integrated genome of HBV DNA, so that they cannot achieve the functional cure of chronic HBV infection. Currently, a series of drugs targeting the phases of HBV lifecycle and immunomodulators have entered clinical trials. Here, we review the current status of the therapeutic drugs as well as the recent advance of direct antiviral agents.
In this study, we investigated the effect of aspirin on tumor biological effects mediated by hepatocyte growth factor/cellular-mesenchymal-epithelial transition factor (HGF/c-Met) axis, and preliminarily explored the molecular mechanism of inhibiting tumor metastasis by aspirin. The binding of aspirin to c-Met was predicted by molecular docking; cellular thermal shift assay (CETSA) was used to verify the binding of aspirin to c-Met at the cellular level. The inhibitory effect of aspirin on c-Met kinase was detected by kinase activity; Western blot, cell scattering test, cell branching morphogenesis and Transwell test were used to evaluate the cell signal transduction, morphological changes and migration and invasion ability. The results showed that aspirin could effectively inhibit the kinase activity of c-Met with a half inhibitory concentration of 0.95 mmol·L-1. The results of docking showed that aspirin could bind to the ATP pocket of c-Met protein, and the main binding sites were Tyr1230, Tyr1159 and Met1229. The CETSA test also showed that aspirin could form binding complex with c-Met protein. Western blot results showed that aspirin could inhibit the up-regulation of phosphorylated Met stimulated by HGF in a concentration-dependent manner. The results of cell scattering test showed that aspirin could block HGF/c-Met promoted cell scattering in a concentration dependent manner. Aspirin could almost completely block the biological function mediated by c-Met activation at the concentration of 4 mmol·L-1, and this effect was independent of HGF. Similarly, the results of MDCK cell branching morphogenesis experiment showed that aspirin could inhibit HGF/c-Met mediated invasive growth in a concentration dependent manner. The results of Transwell test showed that aspirin could block HGF/c-Met mediated cell migration and invasion in a concentration-dependent manner. Aspirin could almost completely block the biological function mediated by c-Met activation at the concentration of 4 mmol·L-1, and this effect was independent of HGF. The above results indicate that aspirin can bind to c-Met, thereby blocking the biological effects mediated by HGF/c-Met, and inhibiting tumor metastasis. This study revealed the new biological function of aspirin, and provided a new theoretical basis for a comprehensive understanding of the anti-metastatic effect of aspirin.
The epidemic of Zika virus (ZIKV) raises critical public health and safety problems. However, there are currently no vaccines or drugs that are clinically approved for ZIKV infections. Since RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RdRp) plays an important role in replication and transcription of ZIKV and is absent in human beings, it is a potential drug screening target of anti-ZIKV agents. According to the fluorescence-based alkaline phosphatase-coupled polymerase assay method, we established the NS5 RdRp inhibitor screening model. Through screening from an anti-infection compound library, we found a compound octenidine dihydrochloride (OCT) that could inhibit ZIKV RdRp activity with a half maximal inhibitory concentration (IC50) of 5.43 μmol·L-1. Biolayer interferometry (BLI) assay showed that OCT could bind to ZIKV RdRp and had a strong affinity. Moreover, OCT exhibited an inhibitory effect on ZIKV replication with a half maximal effective concentration (EC50) of 29.94 μmol·L-1. All these results indicated that OCT had the anti-ZIKV activity by targeting ZIKV RdRp, and it is likely to be a promising lead compound against ZIKV.
Influenza virus is an RNA virus that classified into 4 types, A, B, C, and D, where influenza A and B virus infection may cause human acute respiratory tract infection and nearly 0.3 million deaths annually. The life cycle of influenza virus infection is highly dependent on the host response, demonstrating an important strategy of developing anti-influenza agents that target the host factors. This research utilized a transcriptome signature reversion (TSR) strategy to discover a list of multi-host-factor-target anti-influenza agents and determined their anti-influenza activities in vitro. BIX02189 was discovered and exhibited broad spectrum anti-influenza activity, with half maximal effective concentration (EC50) of 17.1 μmol·L-1 against influenza A virus H1N1 (A/Puerto Rico/8/1934) and 9.4 μmol·L-1 for influenza B virus (B/Jiangxi Xinjian/BV/39/2008). The anti-influenza A virus activity of BIX01289 is stronger than the positive control ribavirin with EC50 of 97.9 μmol·L-1 for influenza A virus H1N1 (A/Puerto Rico/8/1934). According to the unsupervised transcriptomic profile similarity clustering analysis, BIX02189 was considered to inhibit viral protein synthesis and release of influenza virus mainly through inhibiting the Raf/MEK/ERK cascade, revealing its potential mechanism of inhibiting influenza virus infection.
Inosine 5′-monophosphate dehydrogenase (IMPDH) is a key enzyme catalyzing the rate-limiting step of de novo nucleotide synthesis in vivo. In recent years, it has become a therapeutic target for anti-virus, anti-bacterial, anti-cancer, anti-parasitic and other diseases. IMPDH inhibitors have been shown to inhibit viral prolife-ration in host cells by depleting guanosine 5′-monophosphate (GMP), the raw material required for viral replication in host cells, with broad-spectrum antiviral properties. In order to find novel anti-coronavirus drugs, this study screened 22 potential IMPDH inhibitors from 70 000 natural small molecule libraries based on IMPDH protein structure using molecular docking and ROC calculation for virtual screening. With ribavirin as the positive control drug, Huh7 cell and H460 cell models were used to verify the anti-coronavirus HCoV-229E and HCoV-OC43 activities of 22 selected target compounds. Among them, compounds 11, 12, 15 and 16 showed inhibitory activity against coronavirus HCoV-229E. The compounds 4, 12, 13 and 15 showed inhibitory activities against coronavirus HCoV-OC43. 12 and 15 showed significant inhibitory activity against both two coronaviruses, and their efficacy was similar to ribavirin at the same dose, which can be further studied as a lead compound for IMPDH inhibitors.
For rapid discovery of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) main protease (Mpro) inhibitors from a natural product library, a novel colorimetric screening assay was developed. According to the colorimetric principle, the synthetic peptide TSAVLQ-para-nitroanilide (pNA) was used as the Mpro hydrolysis substrate. Subsequently, the working concentration of pNA substrate, Mpro working concentration, hydrolysis time and DMSO tolerance were optimized for the development of a simple and robust colorimetric screening assay. Through these systematic optimizations, we selected 0.4 μmol·L-1 Mpro and 100 μmol·L-1 pNA substrate as the optimal working concentrations in this colorimetric screening assay, and a high Z' factor of 0.9 was achieved. Using this screening assay, natural product ginkgolic acid C13:0 (GA13:0) was identified as a novel competitive Mpro inhibitor in vitro. Taken together, we have successfully developed a simple and optimized colorimetric screening assay, which will be vital for the discovery of novel SARS-CoV-2 Mpro inhibitors.
Arrhythmia is the abnormal heart-beat frequency and/or rhythm caused by the origin of cardiac activity and/or conduction disorder. Arrhythmia disease has various manifestations and complex etiology, which can occur alone or complicated with other cardiovascular diseases. A sudden arrhythmic onset may lead to sudden death, whereas a sustained onset may lead to heart failure. In cardiomyocytes, calcium overload induces apoptosis and leads to arrhythmia. Calcium channel blockers have been widely used in clinic as a routine cardiovascular drug to regulate calcium signal, but their efficacy on different arrhythmia complications vary, and they also have potential therapeutic risks. Therefore, it is of great significance to seek calcium signal modulators targeting new mechanisms from plants and other natural product resources and develop them into anti-arrhythmia drugs with higher safety and better curative effect. This review focuses on the calcium signal regulatory effects of plant-derived natural calcium channel antagonists in arrhythmia models, highlights the research progress in recent years, and summarizes the effects and mechanisms of various natural drugs such as alkaloids, saponins, quinones and flavonoids, which regulate Ca2+ homeostasis, to provide a theoretical basis for the drug development of natural calcium channel antagonists to prevent and treat arrhythmia in the future.
Depression is a psychiatric disease characterized by long-lasting low mood, accompanied by symptoms such as cognitive, sleep and social disturbances. In the theory of traditional Chinese medicine, depression is included in the categories of "depression syndrome" and "madness", and the main syndrome type is liver stagnation and spleen deficiency. Xiaoyao san, Sini san and Chaihushugan san are commonly used prescriptions for clinical treatment of depression, and flavonoids are the common active ingredients. Clinical and basic studies have shown that the flavonoids derived from antidepressant compound prescription have pharmacological effects such as anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, neuroprotective, and intestinal flora regulation which could prevent the occurrence and development of depression from different pathways. Based on this, this review focuses on the pathogenesis of depression, summarizes the common flavonoids in antidepressant prescriptions, and summarizes their regulatory mechanisms and effects in order to provide ideas for the prevention and treatment of depression.
Cerebrovascular diseases have the characteristics of high morbidity, high disability, high mortality and high recurrence rate, which seriously harm human health and increase the national health economic burden. 3-n-Butylphthalide (NBP) is a new drug commonly used in clinical treatment of cerebrovascular diseases, and it is also one of the main active components in traditional Chinese medicine such as Angelica sinensis and Chuanxiong. In this review, the pharmacological effects of NBP were systematically summarized. Studies have shown that NBP has pharmacological effects such as antiplatelet aggregation, anti-thrombosis, inhibiting neuronal apoptosis, anti-oxidation, anti-cerebral ischemia, anti-brain injury, and anti-vascular dementia. In clinical practice, it is often combined with edaravone, alteplase, fasudil, Xingnaojing injection, and compound Danshen injection to treat cerebral vascular diseases such as stroke, vascular dementia, and cerebral vasospasm, and plays a good synergistic effect. This summary could provide support for the rational clinical application of NBP, and also provide basis for the in-depth study of the interaction of its drug combination.
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