Publications by authors named "Jerneja Kladnik"

Nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChRs) are expressed in excitable and non-excitable cells of the organism. Extensive studies suggest that nAChR ligands have therapeutic potential, notably for neurological and psychiatric disorders. Organometallic ruthenium complexes are known to inhibit several medically important enzymes such as cholinesterases.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Fluorescent probes are a powerful tool for imaging amyloid β (Aβ) plaques, the hallmark of Alzheimer's disease (AD). Herein, we report the synthesis and comprehensive characterization of 21 novel probes as well as their optical properties and binding affinities to Aβ fibrils. One of these dyes, 1Ae, exhibited several improvements over FDDNP, an established biomarker for Aβ- and Tau-aggregates.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Organoruthenium pyrithione (1-hydroxypyridine-2-thione) complexes have been shown in our recent studies to be a promising family of compounds for development of new anticancer drugs. The complex [(η--cymene)Ru(pyrithionato)(pta)]PF contains phosphine ligand pta (1,3,5-triaza-7-phosphaadamantane) as a functionality that improves the stability of the complex and its aqueous solubility. Here, we report our efforts to find pta alternatives and discover new structural elements to improve the biological properties of ruthenium anticancer drugs.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Enzyme butyrylcholinesterase (BChE) shows increased activity in some brain regions after progression of Alzheimer's disease and is therefore one of the therapeutic targets for symptomatic treatment of this neurodegenerative disorder. The organoruthenium(II) complex [(η--cymene)Ru(II)(1-hydroxy-3-methoxypyridine-2(1)-thionato)pta]PF () was designed based on the results of our previous structure-activity studies. Inhibitory activity toward cholinesterase enzymes shows that this complex selectively, competitively, and reversibly inhibits horse serum BChE (hsBChE) with an IC value of 2.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Nanosecond electric pulses showed promising results in electrochemotherapy, but the underlying mechanisms of action are still unexplored. The aim of this work was to correlate cellular cisplatin amount with cell survival of cells electroporated with nanosecond or standardly used 8 × 100 μs pulses and to investigate the effects of electric pulses on cisplatin structure.

Materials And Methods: Chinese hamster ovary CHO and mouse melanoma B16F1 cells were exposed to 1 × 200 ns pulse at 12.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Zinc pyrithione (), together with its analogues - and ruthenium pyrithione complex , were synthesised and evaluated for the stability in biologically relevant media and anti-SARS-CoV-2 activity. Zinc pyrithione revealed potent inhibition of cathepsin L (IC=1.88 ± 0.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Selective photochemical oxidation of styrene was performed in an active acetonitrile medium, using HO with or without ultraviolet (UV) light radiation. Pyrithione metal complexes (M-Pth: M = Cu(II), Ni(II), Ru(II); Pth = 2-mercaptopyridine-N-oxide) were used as catalysts. Catalytic testing measurements were done by varying the time, chemical reaction temperature and HO concentration with or without UV energy.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Cholinesterases (ChEs) show increased activities in patients with Alzheimer's disease, and remain one of the main therapeutic targets for treatment of this neurodegenerative disorder. A library of organoruthenium(II) complexes was prepared to investigate the influence of their structural elements on inhibition of ChEs, and on another pharmacologically important group of enzymes, glutathione S-transferases (GSTs). Two groups of organoruthenium(II) compounds were considered: (i) organoruthenium(II) complexes with -cymene as an arene ligand, and (ii) organoruthenium(II) carbonyl complexes as CO-releasing molecules.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

In this work, the various biological activities of eight organoruthenium(II) complexes were evaluated to reveal correlations with their stability and reactivity in aqueous media. Complexes with general formula [Ru(η--cymene)(X,Y)(Z)] were prepared, where (X,Y) represents either an ,-ligand (-diketone), ,-ligand (8-hydroxyquinoline) or ,-pyrithione-type ligands (pyrithione = 1-hydroxypyridine-2(1)-thione) with Cl or 1,3,5-triaza-7-phosphaadamantane (PTA) as a co-ligand (Z). The tested complexes inhibit the chlamydial growth on HeLa cells, and one of the complexes inhibits the growth of the human herpes simplex virus-2.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Drug resistance to existing anticancer agents is a growing clinical concern, with many first line treatments showing poor efficacy in treatment plans of some cancers. Resistance to platinum agents, such as cisplatin, is particularly prevalent in the treatment of ovarian cancer, one of the most common cancers amongst women in the developing world. Therefore, there is an urgent need to develop next generation of anticancer agents which can overcome resistance to existing therapies.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The increasing number of Alzheimer's disease (AD) cases requires the development of new improved drug candidates, possessing the ability of more efficient treatment as well as less unwanted side effects. Cholinesterase enzymes are highly associated with the development of AD and thus represent important druggable targets. Therefore, we have synthesized eight organoruthenium(II) chlorido complexes - with pyrithione-type ligands (pyrithione = 1-hydroxypyridine-2(1)-thione, ), bearing either pyrithione , its methyl (-) or bicyclic aromatic analogues (-) and tested them for their inhibition towards electric eel acetylcholinesterase (eeAChE) and horse serum butyrylcholinesterase (hsBuChE).

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

In addition to antibacterial and antitumor effects, synthetic ruthenium complexes have been reported to inhibit several medicinally important enzymes, including acetylcholinesterase (AChE). They may also interact with muscle-type nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChRs) and thus affect the neuromuscular transmission and muscle function. In the present study, the effects of the organometallic ruthenium complex of 5-nitro-1,10-phenanthroline (nitrophen) were evaluated on these systems.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The development of ruthenium-based complexes for cancer treatment requires a variety of pharmacological studies, one of them being a drug's binding kinetics to serum proteins. In this work, speciation analysis was used to study kinetics of ruthenium-based drug candidates with human serum proteins. Two ruthenium (Ru) complexes, namely [(η--cymene)Ru(1-hydroxypyridine-2(1)-thionato)Cl] () and [(η--cymene)Ru(1-hydroxypyridine-2(1)-thionato)pta]PF () (where pta = 1,3,5-triaza-7-phosphaadamantane), were selected.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

An organoruthenium(II) complex with pyrithione (2-mercaptopyridine N-oxide) 1 a has previously been identified by our group as a compound with promising anticancer potential without cytotoxicity towards non-cancerous cells. To expand the rather limited research on compounds of this type, an array of novel chlorido and 1,3,5-triaza-7-phosphaadamantane (pta) organoruthenium(II) complexes with methyl-substituted pyrithiones has been prepared. After thorough investigation of the aqueous stability of these complexes, their modes of action have been elucidated at the cellular level.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF