Introduction: Toxoplasmosis is a worldwide distributed zoonosis caused by ), an obligate intracellular protozoan. The infection in immunocompetent hosts usually progresses with mild or no symptoms. However, in immunocompromised individuals, this disease can cause severe or fatal symptoms.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSchistosomiasis is a neglected disease transmitted through contaminated water in populations with low basic sanitation. The World Health Organization recommends controlling the intermediate host snails of the Biomphalaria genus with the molluscicide niclosamide. This work aims to evaluate the biocidal potential of the nanoemulsion prepared with the essential oil of Ocotea indecora leaves for the control of the mollusk Biomphalaria glabrata, intermediate host of the Schistosoma mansoni, the etiologic agent of schistosomiasis.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Bioenerg Biomembr
December 2023
Current treatment of Chagas disease (CD) is based on two substances, nifurtimox (NT) and benzonidazole (BZ), both considered unsatisfactory mainly due to their low activities and high toxicity profile. One of the main challenges faced in CD management concerns the identification of new drugs active in the acute and chronic phases and with good pharmacokinetic profiles. In this work, we studied the bioactivity of twenty 2-(1H-pyrazol-1-yl)-1,3,4-thiadiazole derivatives against Trypanosoma cruzi epimastigotes and trypomastigotes.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSchistosomiasis is a tropical disease transmitted in an aqueous environment by cercariae from the genus. This disease affects 200 million people living in risk areas around the world. The control of schistosomiasis is realized by chemotherapy, wastewater sanitation, health education, and mollusk control using molluscicidal agents.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFStimulation of the P2X7 receptor by extracellular adenosine 5'-triphosphate induces a series of responses in the organism, exceptionally protein cascades related to the proinflammatory process. This has made P2X7 a target for research on inflammatory diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis. Thus, the incessant search for new prototypes that aim to antagonize the action of P2X7 has been remarkable in recent decades, a factor that has already led to numerous clinical studies in humans.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Bioenerg Biomembr
June 2023
The subclass naphthoquinone represents a substance group containing several compounds with important activities against various pathogenic microorganisms. Accordingly, we evaluated O-allyl-lawsone (OAL) antiparasitic and antifungal activity free and encapsulated in 2-hydroxypropyl-β-cyclodextrin (OAL MKN) against Trypanosoma cruzi and Sporothrix spp. OAL and OAL MKN were synthesized and characterized by physicochemical methods.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBiomed Pharmacother
June 2023
Purinergic receptors are transmembrane proteins responsive to extracellular nucleotides and are expressed by several cell types throughout the human body. Among all identified subtypes, the P2×7 receptor has emerged as a relevant target for the treatment of inflammatory disease. Several clinical trials have been conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of P2×7R antagonists.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSchistosomiasis is caused by the parasite , which uses mollusks of the genus as intermediate hosts. In 2020, approximately 241 million people worldwide underwent treatment for schistosomiasis. For this reason, the World Health Organization encourages research on alternative molluskicides based on plant species.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMolecules
January 2023
ATP acts in the extracellular environment as an important signal, activating a family of receptors called purinergic receptors. In recent years, interest in the potential therapeutics of purinergic components, including agonists and antagonists of receptors, has increased. Currently, many observations have indicated that ATP acts as an important mediator of inflammatory responses and, when found in high concentrations in the extracellular space, is related to the activation of the P2X7 purinergic receptor.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFInflamm Res
February 2023
Objective: The present study aimed to investigate five triazole compounds as P2X7R inhibitors and evaluate their ability to reduce acute inflammation in vivo.
Material: The synthetic compounds were labeled 5e, 8h, 9i, 11, and 12.
Treatment: We administered 500 ng/kg triazole analogs in vivo, (1-10 µM) in vitro, and 1000 mg/kg for toxicological assays.
Int Immunopharmacol
September 2022
The inflammatory focus is similar to the tumor microenvironment, which contains a complex milieu with immune cells and macrophages. The accumulation of cells promotes local pH and O tension decline (hypoxia). Local O tension decline activates hypoxia-inducible factor α and β (HIF-1α and HIF-1β adenosine triphosphate (ATP) release.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSchistosomiasis is caused by the intestinal parasite . Individuals are affected by schistosomiasis when they are exposed to aquatic environments contaminated with that emerged from the infected intermediate host mollusk of the genus . The WHO recommends using molluscicidal products to reduce the snail population and disease transmission.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSchistosomiasis is the second most prevalent parasitic infectious disease after malaria, which affects millions of people worldwide and causes health and socioeconomic problems. The snail Biomphalaria glabrata is an intermediate host for the helminth, which is the causative agent of schistosomiasis: Schistosoma mansoni. One crucial strategy for controlling the disease is the eradication of the snail host.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFTriterpenes α,β-amyrin are naturally occurring molecules that can serve as building blocks for synthesizing new chemical entities. This study synthesized acyl, carboxyesther, NSAID, and nitrogenous derivatives and evaluated their antimicrobial activity. A cyclodextrin complexation method was developed to improve the solubility of the derivatives.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMetabolic disorders, such as insulin resistance, affect many people worldwide due to the prevalence of obesity and type 2 diabetes, which are pathologies that impair glycemic metabolism. Glucose is the primary energetic substrate of the body and is essential for cellular function. As the cell membrane is not permeable to glucose molecules, there are two distinct groups of glucose transporters: sodium-glucose-linked transporters (SGLTs) and the glucose transporter (GLUT) family.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFExtracellular ATP activates purinergic receptors such as P2X7, cationic channels for Ca, K, and Na. There is robust evidence of the involvement of these receptors in the immune response, so P2X7 receptors (P2X7R) are considered a potential therapeutic target for the development of anti-inflammatory drugs. Although there are many studies of the anti-inflammatory properties of naphthoquinones, these molecules have not yet been explored as P2X7 antagonists.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFLocal anesthetics (LAs), such as lidocaine and mexiletine, inhibit bronchoconstriction in asthmatics, but adverse effects limit their use for this specific clinical application. In this study, we describe the anti-spasmodic properties of the mexiletine analog 2-(2-aminopropoxy)-3,5-dimethyl, 4-Br-benzene (JME-173), which was synthesized and screened for inducing reduced activity on Na channels. The effectiveness of JME-173 was assessed using rat tracheal rings, a GH3 cell line and mouse cardiomyocytes to access changes in smooth muscle contraction, and Na, and Caionic currents, respectively.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIn recent years, interest in the research of P2 receptor (P2R)-mediated responses has grown significantly due to the recognition of the involvement of these receptors in various physiological and pathological processes. Despite all the progress made in the functional characterization of P2Rs, purinergic signaling research is still limited by the lack of selective or efficient ligands for different receptor subtypes. In this sense, several molecules have been tested towards these receptors as agonists or antagonists.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCapsaicin (CAP) is a spice-derived substance of the genus Capsicum, which has high pungency and therapeutic potential. For many years, it has been considered only as an agonist of the transient receptor potential vanilloid member 1 (TRPV1), a member from the family of transient potential receptors (TRPs). Capsaicin can lead to a variety of effects on cells, acting in specific organelles, and promoting different responses.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEur J Pharmacol
October 2020
Existing evidence suggests that the local anaesthetic mexiletine can be beneficial for patients with asthma. However, caution is required since anaesthesia of the airways inhibits protective bronchodilator neuronal reflexes, limiting applications in conditions of hyperirritable airways. Here, we describe the synthesis of a new series of mexiletine analogues, which were screened for reduced activity in Na channels and improved smooth muscle relaxant effects, that were evaluated using the patch-clamp technique and an isolated tracheal organ bath, respectively.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFA series of 11 new N,S-acetal juglone derivatives were synthesized and evaluated against T. cruzi epimastigote forms. These compounds were obtained in good to moderate yields using a microwave irradiation protocol.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Bioenerg Biomembr
June 2020
We study βLAP and its derivative nor-β-Lapachone (NβL) complexes with 2-hydroxypropyl-β-cyclodextrin to increase the solubility and bioavailability. The formation of true inclusion complexes between βLAP or NβL in 2-HP-β-CD in solid solution was characterization by FT-IR, DSC, powder X-ray was and was confirmed by one- and two-dimensional H NMR experiments. Additionally, the biological activities of βLAP, NβL, ICβLAP, and ICNβL were investigated through trypanocidal assays with T.
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