Publications by authors named "Marina Galdino da Rocha Pitta"

Objective: In this study, we have synthesized 19 Thiazolidine (TZD) derivatives to investigate their potential anti-ZIKV effects.

Methods: Nineteen thiazolidine derivatives were synthesized and evaluated for their cytotoxicity and antiviral activity against the ZIKA virus.

Results: Among them, six demonstrated remarkable selectivity against the ZIKV virus, exhibiting IC50 values of <5μM, and the other compounds did not demonstrate selectivity for the virus.

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Increasing evidence indicates that neuroinflammation, oxidative stress, and neurotrophic factors play a key role in the pathophysiology of major depressive disorder (MDD). In addition, the attenuation of inflammatory response has been considered a putative mechanism for MDD treatment. PT-31 is an imidazolidine derivative and a putative α₂-adrenoceptor agonist that has previously demonstrated antinociceptive activity.

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Background: Inflammation is a series of complex defense-related reactions. The inflammation cascade produces various pro-inflammatory mediators. Unregulated production of these pro-inflammatory mediators can lead to a wide range of diseases, including rheumatoid arthritis, sepsis, and inflammatory bowel disease.

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Thiazolidinediones (TZD) are synthetic molecules that have a range of biological effects, including antifibrotic and anti-inflammatory, and they may represent a promising therapeutic strategy for systemic sclerosis (SSc). The aim of this study was to investigate the immunomodulatory and antifibrotic properties of LPSF/GQ-16, a TZD derivative, in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) from SSc patients and in a murine model of SSc HOCl-induced. The PBMC of 20 SSc patients were stimulated with phytohemagglutinin (PHA) and treated with LPSF/GQ-16 for 48 h, later cytokines in the culture supernatants were quantified by sandwich enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) or cytometric bead array (CBA).

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Schizophrenia is a psychiatric disorder that affects 1% of the world population and is treated with antipsychotics, which may induce important biochemical and hematological alterations. Since it is necessary to verify the safety of new molecules with antipsychotic potential, the present study aimed to evaluate the oral toxicity of PT-31, a putative α-adrenoreceptor agonist, after acute (2000 mg/kg) and repeated doses (28 days) gavage treatment, in three different doses: minimum effective dose in animal models (10 mg/kg), twice the dose (20 mg/kg), and four times the dose (40 mg/kg), as recommended by the OECD guidelines. Balb/C female adult mice were used, and biochemical, hematological, and histopathological analyses were performed.

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Background: Oxazolidinones display several biological effects, including anticancer activity. The purpose of this present work was to investigate a series of novel oxazolidinone derivatives with potential antineoplastic activity. Their mechanisms of death induction and effects in the cell cycle were also evaluated.

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Purpose: Patients submitted to radiotherapy (RT) may present in their healthy tissues surrounding the treated tumor, some typical acute inflammatory reactions induced by ionizing radiation (IR). The manifestation of inflammatory processes is a result of exacerbation of the immune system, as a response to radiation exposure, and this can be a limiting factor for RT protocols. To counteract this, some thiazolidinediones, such as LPSF/GQ-16, may be useful for modulating the patient's radioinduced inflammatory response in normal tissues.

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It is well known that cancer is the second leading cause of death worldwide. Due to this fact, new results for the treatment of cancer are constantly being introduced and verified. Imidazolidine derivatives regulate cell cycle progression and DNA stability.

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The quinolinic ring, present in several molecules, possesses a great diversity of biological activities. Therefore, this ring is in the structural composition of several candidates of drugs in preclinical and clinical studies; thus, it is necessary to compile these results to facilitate the design of new drugs. For this reason, some of the activities of compounds are selected to examine in this review, such as antimalarial, antimicrobial, anticancer, anti-inflammatory, antidiabetic, anti-rheumatic, and antiviral activities.

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Evidence of changes in central noradrenergic activity has been reported in schizophrenic patients and studies indicate that activation of the α2-adrenoceptor improves memory and neuroprotection. In this study, a new imidazolidine derivative 3-(2-chloro-6-fluorobenzyl)-imidazolidine-2,4-dione, PT-31, a putative α2A-adrenoceptor agonist, was evaluated in mouse models predictive of efficacy in the treatment of positive and cognitive symptoms of schizophrenia, as well as its ability to promote cerebellar granule cell survival in vitro, in the presence or absence of glutamate (100 µmol/l). PT-31 prevented apomorphine-induced climbing and the ketamine-induced hyperlocomotion, without inducing catalepsy or motor impairment.

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One of the greatest challenges of cancer therapeutics nowadays is to find selective targets successfully. Prostate apoptosis response-4 (Par-4) is a selective tumor suppressor protein with an interesting therapeutic potential due to its specificity on inducing apoptosis in cancer cells. Par-4 activity and levels can be downregulated in several tumors and cancer cell types, indicating poor prognosis and treatment resistance.

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Substitutions in thiophene structure give rise to new derivatives with different biological and pharmacological activities. The present study investigated the cytotoxicity activity of some thiophene derivatives in breast cancer cells maintained in two-dimensional (2D) or in three-dimensional (3D) culture and evaluated the anticancer mechanism of these compounds. Cytotoxicity assays were performed against untransformed cells and against breast cancer cell MCF-7.

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Background: Oxazolidinones derivatives exhibit different biological properties, including anticancer activity. This work aimed to investigate the anticancer potential of five novel 2-Thioxo-oxazolidin-4-one derivatives.

Methods: Cytotoxicity assays were performed in human peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) from healthy individuals and seven tumor cell lines.

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Thiazacridine and imidazacridine derivatives have shown promising results as tumors suppressors in some cancer cell lines. For a better understanding of the mechanism of action of these compounds, binding studies of 5-acridin-9-ylmethylidene-3-amino-2-thioxo-thiazolidin-4-one, 5-acridin-9-ylmethylidene-2-thioxo-thiazolidin-4-one, 5-acridin-9-ylmethylidene-2-thioxo-imidazolidin-4-one and 3-acridin-9-ylmethyl-thiazolidin-2,4-dione with calf thymus DNA (ctDNA) by electronic absorption and fluorescence spectroscopy and circular dichroism spectroscopy were performed. The binding constants ranged from 1.

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Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is an autoimmune disease frequently characterized by chronic synovitis of multiple joints. The pathogenesis of RA is complex and involves many proinflammatory cytokines as Th17 related ones. PPAR γ is a nuclear receptor activator that represses proinflammatory gene expression.

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Schistosomiasis is a devastating worldwide widespread tropical disease that currently affects more than 230 million people, making it an issue of great socioeconomic and public health importance. Unfortunatelly there is a single drug for the treatment of all forms of schistosomiasis, praziquantel, which was introduced in therapy in 1980. The article goes by antimony compounds, emetine, hydantoin, nitrofurans, lucanthone, hycanthone, oxamniquine derivatives and organophosphates until it finally gets to praziquantel derivatives.

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Although their exact role in controlling tumour growth and apoptosis in humans remains undefined, acridine and thiazolidine compounds have been shown to act as tumour suppressors in most cancers. Based on this finding, a series of novel hybrid 5-acridin-9-ylmethylene-3-benzyl-thiazolidine-2,4-diones were synthesised via N-alkylation and Michael reaction. The cell viability was analysed using a 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide (MTT) assay, and DNA interaction assays were performed using electrochemical techniques.

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All living organisms, ranging from microorganisms to plants and mammals, have evolved mechanisms to actively defend themselves against pathogen attack. A wide range of biological activities have been attributed to plant antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) including growth inhibitory effects on a broad range of fungi, Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria, viruses, neoplasic cells and parasitic protozoa. Classes of AMPs, their mechanisms of action, biological activity, and cytotoxicity towards host cells are discussed.

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