Steroidal epoxides as anticancer agents in lung, prostate and breast cancers: The case of 1,2-epoxysteroids.

Cancer continues to be a serious threat to human health worldwide. Lung, prostate and triple-negative breast cancers are amongst the most incident and deadliest cancers. Steroidal compounds are one of the most diversified therapeutic classes of compounds and they were proven to be efficient against several types of cancer.

Synthetic and natural guanidine derivatives as antitumor and antimicrobial agents: A review.

Guanidines are fascinating small nitrogen-rich organic compounds, which have been frequently associated with a wide range of biological activities. This is mainly due to their interesting chemical features. For these reasons, for the past decades, researchers have been synthesizing and evaluating guanidine derivatives.

The Structural Diversity and Biological Activity of Steroid Oximes.

Steroids and their derivatives have been the subject of extensive research among investigators due to their wide range of pharmacological properties, in which steroidal oximes are included. Oximes are a chemical group with the general formula RRC=N-OH and they exist as colorless crystals and are poorly soluble in water. Oximes can be easily obtained through the condensation of aldehydes or ketones with various amine derivatives, making them a very interesting chemical group in medicinal chemistry for the design of drugs as potential treatments for several diseases.

Design, synthesis, biological activity evaluation and structure-activity relationships of new steroidal aromatase inhibitors. The case of C-ring and 7β substituted steroids.

In this work, new steroidal aromatase inhibitors (AIs) were designed, synthesized, and tested. In one approach, C-ring substituted steroids namely those functionalized at C-11 position with an α or β hydroxyl group or with a carbonyl group as well as C-9/C-11 steroidal olefins and epoxides were studied. It was found that the carbonyl group at C-11 is more beneficial for aromatase inhibition than the hydroxyl group, and that the C-ring epoxides were more potent than the C-ring olefins, leading to the discovery of a very strong AI, compound 7, with an IC of 0.

Epoxide containing molecules: A good or a bad drug design approach.

Functional group modification is one of the main strategies used in drug discovery and development. Despite the controversy of being identified for many years as a biologically hazardous functional group, the introduction of an epoxide function in a structural backbone is still one of the possible modifications being implemented in drug design. In this manner, it is our intention to prove with this work that epoxides can have significant interest in medicinal chemistry, not only as anticancer agents, but also as important drugs for other pathologies.

New phenolic cinnamic acid derivatives as selective COX-2 inhibitors. Design, synthesis, biological activity and structure-activity relationships.

Selective inhibition of cyclooxygenase (COX)-2 enzyme is an important achievement when looking for potent anti-inflammatory agents, with fewer gastrointestinal side effects. In this work, a new series of cinnamic acid derivatives, namely hexylamides, have been designed, synthesized and evaluated in human blood for their inhibitory activity of COX-1 and COX-2 enzymes. From this, new structure-activity relationships were built, showing that phenolic hydroxyl groups are essential for both COX-1 and COX-2 inhibition.

C-6α- vs C-7α-Substituted Steroidal Aromatase Inhibitors: Which Is Better? Synthesis, Biochemical Evaluation, Docking Studies, and Structure-Activity Relationships.

C-6α and C-7α androstanes were studied to disclose which position among them is more convenient to functionalize to reach superior aromatase inhibition. In the first series, the study of C-6 versus C-7 methyl derivatives led to the very active compound 9 with IC of 0.06 μM and K = 0.

Anti-tumor efficacy of new 7α-substituted androstanes as aromatase inhibitors in hormone-sensitive and resistant breast cancer cells.

The majority of breast cancer cases are estrogen receptor positive (ER). Although, third-generation aromatase inhibitors (AIs) are used as first-line treatment in post-menopausal women, they cause endocrine resistance and bone loss, which limits their success. Therefore, there is a demand to discover new potent molecules, with less toxicity that can circumvent these drawbacks.

Combined dual effect of modulation of human neutrophils' oxidative burst and inhibition of colon cancer cells proliferation by hydroxycinnamic acid derivatives.

Colon cancer is one of the most incident cancers in the Western World. While both genetic and epigenetic factors may contribute to the development of colon cancer, it is known that chronic inflammation associated to excessive production of reactive oxygen and nitrogen species by phagocytes may ultimately initiate the multistep process of colon cancer development. Phenolic compounds, which reveal antioxidant and antiproliferative activities in colon cancer cells, can be a good approach to surpass this problem.

Exploring new chemical functionalities to improve aromatase inhibition of steroids.

In this work, new potent steroidal aromatase inhibitors both in microsomes and in breast cancer cells have been found. The synthesis of the 3,4-(ethylenedioxy)androsta-3,5-dien-17-one (12), a new steroid containing a heterocycle dioxene fused in the A-ring, led to the discovery of a new reaction for which a mechanism is proposed. New structure-activity relationships were established.

Plant derived and dietary phenolic antioxidants: anticancer properties.

In this paper, a review of the literature on the phenolic compounds with anticancer activity published between 2008 and 2012 is presented. In this overview only phenolic antioxidant compounds that display significant anticancer activity have been described. In the first part of this review, the oxidative and nitrosative stress relation with cancer are described.

Design, synthesis and biochemical studies of new 7α-allylandrostanes as aromatase inhibitors.

Two series of derivatives of 7α-allylandrostenedione, namely its 3-deoxo and 1-ene analogs, were designed and synthesised and their biochemical activity towards aromatase evaluated. In each of these series, the C-17 carbonyl group was further replaced by the hydroxyl and acetoxyl groups. The attained data pointed out that the absence of the C-3 carbonyl group led to a slightly decrease in the inhibitory activity and the introduction of an additional double bond in C-1 revealed to be a very beneficial structural change in the studied compounds (compound 12, IC₅₀ = 0.

New structure-activity relationships of A- and D-ring modified steroidal aromatase inhibitors: design, synthesis, and biochemical evaluation.

A- and D-ring androstenedione derivatives were synthesized and tested for their abilities to inhibit aromatase. In one series, C-3 hydroxyl derivatives were studied leading to a very active compound, when the C-3 hydroxyl group assumes 3β stereochemistry (1, IC(50) = 0.18 μM).

Lipophilic phenolic antioxidants: correlation between antioxidant profile, partition coefficients and redox properties.

Lipophilic compounds structurally based on caffeic, hydrocaffeic, ferulic and hydroferulic acids were synthesized. Subsequently, their antioxidant activity was evaluated as well as their partition coefficients and redox potentials. The structure-property-activity relationship (SPAR) results revealed the existence of a clear correlation between the redox potentials and the antioxidant activity.

Molecular mechanisms of aromatase inhibition by new A, D-ring modified steroids.

A recent approach for treatment and prevention of estrogen-dependent breast cancer focuses on the inhibition of aromatase, the enzyme that catalyzes the final step of estrogen biosynthesis. Some synthetic steroids, such as formestane and exemestane, resembling the natural enzyme substrate androstenedione, revealed to be potent and useful aromatase inhibitors (AIs) and were approved for the treatment of estrogen-dependent breast cancer in postmenopausal women. Recently, we found that five newly synthesized steroids with chemical features in the A- and D-rings considered important for drug-receptor interaction efficiently inhibit aromatase derived from human placental microsomes.

Synthesis and biochemical studies of 17-substituted androst-3-enes and 3,4-epoxyandrostanes as aromatase inhibitors.

A series of 5alpha-androst-3-enes and 3alpha,4alpha-epoxy-5alpha-androstanes were synthesized and tested for their abilities to inhibit aromatase in human placental microsomes. In these series the original C-17 carbonyl group was replaced by hydroxyl, acetyl and hydroxyimine groups. Inhibition kinetic analysis on the most potent steroid of these series revealed that it inhibits the enzyme in a competitive manner (IC(50)=6.

New steroidal aromatase inhibitors: suppression of estrogen-dependent breast cancer cell proliferation and induction of cell death.

Background: Aromatase, the cytochrome P-450 enzyme (CYP19) responsible for estrogen biosynthesis, is an important target for the treatment of estrogen-dependent breast cancer. In fact, the use of synthetic aromatase inhibitors (AI), which induce suppression of estrogen synthesis, has shown to be an effective alternative to the classical tamoxifen for the treatment of postmenopausal patients with ER-positive breast cancer. New AIs obtained, in our laboratory, by modification of the A and D-rings of the natural substrate of aromatase, compounds 3a and 4a, showed previously to efficiently suppress aromatase activity in placental microsomes.

Structure-activity relationships of new A,D-ring modified steroids as aromatase inhibitors: design, synthesis, and biological activity evaluation.

Inhibition of aromatase is an efficient approach for the prevention and treatment of breast cancer. New A,D-ring modified steroid analogues of formestane and testolactone were designed and synthesized and their biochemical activity was investigated in vitro in an attempt to find new aromatase inhibitors and to gain insight into their structure-activity relationships (SAR). All compounds tested were less active than formestane.

X-ray and deuterium labeling studies on the abnormal ring cleavages of a 5 beta-epoxide precursor of formestane.

A new convergent synthesis of the antitumor steroid formestane (4-OHA) 5 has been performed from the easily available epimeric mixture of 5 alpha- and 5 beta-androst-3-en-17-one 1a and 1b in order to attempt a yield improvement. A two-step oxidative route followed by base-catalyzed isomerization was applied to the 5 alpha- and 5 beta-epimers 1a and 1b, either as a mixture or separately, leading to the title compound 5. From epimer 1a an efficient process was attained to prepare the desired aromatase inhibitor formestane.