Publications by authors named "Frederic Rodriguez"

Tuberculosis is a serious public health problem worldwide. The search for new antibiotics has become a priority, especially with the emergence of resistant strains. A new family of imidazoquinoline derivatives, structurally analogous to triazolophthalazines, which had previously shown good antituberculosis activity, were designed to inhibit InhA, an essential enzyme for survival.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

A concise asymmetric synthesis of clickable enantiomeric pyrrolidines was achieved using Crabbé-Ma allenation. The synthesized iminosugars were grafted by copper-free strain-promoted alkyne-azide cycloaddition onto phosphorus dendrimers. The hexavalent and dodecavalent pyrrolidines were evaluated as β-glucocerebrosidase inhibitors.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Tuberculosis (TB), caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb), remains a worldwide scourge with more than 10 million people affected yearly. Among the proteins essential for the survival of Mtb, InhA has been and is still clinically validated as a therapeutic target. A new family of direct diaryl ether inhibitors, not requiring prior activation by the catalase peroxidase enzyme KatG, has been designed with the ambition of fully occupying the InhA substrate-binding site.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

A series of 25 chiral anti-cancer lipidic alkynylcarbinols (LACs) were devised by introducing an (hetero)aromatic ring between the aliphatic chain and the dialkynylcarbinol warhead. The resulting phenyl-dialkynylcarbinols (PACs) exhibit enhanced stability, while retaining cytotoxicity against HCT116 and U2OS cell lines with IC down to 40 nM for resolved eutomers. A clickable probe was used to confirm the PAC prodrug behavior: upon enantiospecific bio-oxidation of the carbinol by the HSD17B11 short-chain dehydrogenase/reductase (SDR), the resulting ynones covalently modify cellular proteins, leading to endoplasmic reticulum stress, ubiquitin-proteasome system inhibition, and apoptosis.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Tuberculosis (TB) caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) affects 10 million people each year and the emergence of resistant TB augurs for a growing incidence. In the last 60 years, only three new drugs were approved for TB treatment, for which resistances are already emerging. Therefore, there is a crucial need for new chemotherapeutic agents capable of eradicating TB.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase (IDO1) and tryptophane 2,3-dioxygenase (TDO) are two heme-containing enzymes which catalyze the conversion of tryptophan to N-formylkynurenine. Both enzymes are well establish therapeutic targets as important factors in the tumor immune evasion mechanism. A number of analogues of the marine pyrroloquinoline alkaloids tsitsikammamines or wakayin have been synthesized, two of them were synthesized using an original method to build the bispyrroloquinone framework.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

A concise and asymmetric synthesis of the enantiomeric pyrrolidines 2 and ent-2 are herein reported. Both enantiomers were assessed as β-GCase inhibitors. While compound ent-2 acted as a poor competitive inhibitor, its enantiomer 2 proved to be a potent non-competitive inhibitor.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

A sexual enhancer dietary supplement in pre-commercialization phase was analyzed. It contained the two phosphodiesterase-5 inhibitors (PDE-5i) sildenafil and methisosildenafil as major adulterants. Fourteen more sildenafil derivatives were detected and after isolation, their structures were elucidated thanks to NMR, high resolution and tandem mass spectrometry, and UV spectroscopy.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Two macrocyclic derivatives based on the triclosan frame were designed and synthesized as inhibitors of Mycobacterium tuberculosis InhA enzyme. One of the two molecules M02 displayed promising inhibitory activity against InhA enzyme with an IC of 4.7 μM.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Dysregulation of the ceramide transport protein CERT is associated to diseases such as cancer. In search for new CERT START domain ligands, N-dodecyl-deoxynojirimycin (N-dodecyl-DNJ) iminosugar was found to display, as a ceramide mimic, significant protein recognition. To reinforce the lipophilic interactions and strengthen this protein binding, a docking study was carried out in order to select the optimal position on which to introduce an additional O-alkyl chain on N-dodecyl-DNJ.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Preeclampsia (PE) is a leading cause of pregnancy complications, affecting 3-7% of pregnant women worldwide. The pathophysiology of preeclampsia involves a redox imbalance, oxidative stress and a reduced nitric oxide (NO) bioavailability. The molecular and cellular mechanisms leading to the dysfunction of the placental endothelial NO synthase (eNOS) are not clarified.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

A series of simple -alkyl pyrrolidines already known as cytotoxic inhibitors of ceramide glucosylation in melanoma cells can be converted into their corresponding 6-membered analogues by means of a simple ring expansion. This study illustrated how an isomerisation from iminosugar pyrrolidine toward piperidine could invert their targeting from glucosylceramide (GlcCer) formation toward GlcCer hydrolysis. Thus, we found that the 5-membered ring derivatives did not inhibit the hydrolysis reaction of GlcCer catalysed by lysosomal β-glucocerebrosidase (GBA).

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The enigmatical dichotomy between the two CERT/GPBP protein isoforms, their vast panel of biological implications and the scarcity of known antagonist series call for new ligand chemotypes identification. We report the design of iminosugar-based ceramide mimics for the development of new START domain ligands potentially targeting either protein isoforms. Strategic choice of (i) an iminoxylitol core structure and (ii) the positioning of two dodecyl residues led to an extent of protein binding comparable to that of the natural cargo lipid ceramide or the archetypical inhibitor HPA-12.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

A series of GEQ analogues bearing pyrrolidinone or pyrrolidine cores were synthesized and evaluated against InhA, essential target for Mycobacterium tuberculosis (M.tb) survival. The compounds were also evaluated against M.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

A series of 12 analogues of the Cer transfer protein (CERT) antagonist HPA-12 with long aliphatic chains were prepared as their (1R,3S)-syn and (1R,3R)-anti stereoisomers from pivotal chiral oxoamino acids. The enantioselective access to these intermediates as well as their ensuing transformation relied on a practical crystallization-induced asymmetric transformation (CIAT) process. Sonogashira coupling followed by triple bond reduction and thiophene ring hydrodesulfurization (HDS) into the corresponding alkane moieties was then implemented to complete the synthetic routes delivering the targeted HPA-12 analogues in concise 4- to 6-step reaction sequences.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The natural product ferutinin was shown to act as an agonist to estrogen receptor ERα and agonist/antagonist to ERβ featuring a weak antiproliferative activity toward breast cancer cells. To enhance this activity, ferutinin analogues were synthesized by esterification of jaeschkenadiol with different acids. These compounds were assayed for their in vitro antiproliferative activity against estrogen-dependent (MCF-7) and estrogen-independent (MDA-MB-231) breast cancer cell lines.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

A series of fluorene-based derivatives was synthesized and evaluated for inhibiting both InhA and Mycobacterium tuberculosis growth. These compounds were inspired by the previously reported Genz-10850 molecule, a good InhA inhibitor, but with a poor activity against M. tuberculosis growth.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • A new method for synthesizing four pure HPA-12 stereoisomers was developed using Crystallization-Induced Asymmetric Transformation (CIAT), allowing for large-scale production.
  • This technique enabled researchers to effectively evaluate how these stereoisomers interact with a specific CERT START protein domain.
  • An advanced assay was created to measure their binding strength, revealing that the (1R,3S) variant showed the strongest interaction, with both 1R and 3S stereocenters playing significant roles in the recognition process, paving the way for future drug discovery.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Marine organisms have proven to be a promising source of new compounds with activity against tumor cell lines. Granulatimide and isogranulatimide are marine alkaloids that have been shown to inhibit checkpoint kinase 1 (Chk1), a key protein in the DNA damage response and an emerging target for anticancer therapeutics. Here, we describe the synthesis and preliminary evaluation of amido and amino analogues of isogranulatimide.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The two marine alkaloids granulatimide and isogranulatimide have been shown to inhibit the checkpoint kinase 1 (Chk1), a promising target for cancer treatment. A molecular docking study allowing the design of new potential Chk1 inhibitors based on the natural products skeleton and the synthetic work to an amino-target platform to prepare them are described.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

In the present paper, we report the synthesis via catalytic Michael reaction and biological results of a series of 3-heteryl substituted pyrrolidine-2,5-dione derivatives as moderate inhibitors against Mycobacterium tuberculosis H37Rv growth. Some of them present also inhibition activities against InhA.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

We report here the discovery, synthesis and screening results of a series of 3-(9H-fluoren-9-yl)pyrrolidine-2,5-dione derivatives as a novel class of potent inhibitors of Mycobacterium tuberculosis H37Rv strain as well as the enoyl acyl carrier protein reductase (ENR) InhA. Among them, several compounds displayed good activities against InhA which is one of the key enzymes involved in the type II fatty acid biosynthesis pathway of the mycobacteria cell wall. Furthermore, some exhibited promising activities against M.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Two series of α-ketotriazole and α,β-diketotriazole derivatives were synthesized and evaluated for antitubercular and cytotoxic activities. Among them, two α,β-diketotriazole compounds, 6b and 9b, exhibited good activities (minimum inhibitory concentration = 7.6 μM and 6.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

A series of triazoles have been prepared and evaluated as inhibitors of InhA as well as inhibitors of Mycobacterium tuberculosis H(37)R(v). Several of these new compounds possess a good activity against InhA, particularly compounds 17 and 18 for which molecular docking has been performed. Concerning their activities against M.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Zearalenone (ZEN) is a non-steroid estrogen mycotoxin produced by numerous strains of Fusarium which commonly contaminate cereals. After oral administration, ZEN is reduced via intestinal and hepatic metabolism to α- and β-zearalenol (αZEL and βZEL). These reduced metabolites possess estrogenic properties, αZEL showing the highest affinity for ERs.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF