Natural products: a continuing source of novel drug leads.

Historically, natural products have been used since ancient times and in folklore for the treatment of many diseases and illnesses. Classical natural product chemistry methodologies enabled a vast array of bioactive secondary metabolites from terrestrial and marine sources to be discovered. Many of these natural products have gone on to become current drug candidates. This brief review aims to highlight historically significant bioactive marine and terrestrial natural products, their use in folklore and dereplication techniques to rapidly facilitate their discovery. Furthermore a discussion of how natural product chemistry has resulted in the identification of many drug candidates; the application of advanced hyphenated spectroscopic techniques to aid in their discovery, the future of natural product chemistry and finally adopting metabolomic profiling and dereplication approaches for the comprehensive study of natural product extracts will be discussed.

https://minerva-access.unimelb.edu.au/bitstream/handle/11343/265172/PMC3901206.pdf

A historical overview of natural products in drug discovery.

Summary: Since the introduction of penicillin, β-lactam antibiotics have been the antimicrobial agents of choice. Unfortunately, the efficacy of these life-saving antibiotics is significantly threatened by bacterial β-lactamases. β-Lactamases are now responsible for resistance to penicillins, extended-spectrum cephalosporins, monobactams, and carbapenems. In order to overcome β-lactamase-mediated resistance, β-lactamase inhibitors (clavulanate, sulbactam, and tazobactam) were introduced into clinical practice. These inhibitors greatly enhance the efficacy of their partner β-lactams (amoxicillin, ampicillin, piperacillin, and ticarcillin) in the treatment of serious Enterobacteriaceae and penicillin-resistant staphylococcal infections. However, selective pressure from excess antibiotic use accelerated the emergence of resistance to β-lactam-β-lactamase inhibitor combinations. Furthermore, the prevalence of clinically relevant β-lactamases from other classes that are resistant to inhibition is rapidly increasing. There is an urgent need for effective inhibitors that can restore the activity of β-lactams. Here, we review the catalytic mechanisms of each β-lactamase class. We then discuss approaches for circumventing β-lactamase-mediated resistance, including properties and characteristics of mechanism-based inactivators. We next highlight the mechanisms of action and salient clinical and microbiological features of β-lactamase inhibitors. We also emphasize their therapeutic applications. We close by focusing on novel compounds and the chemical features of these agents that may contribute to a “second generation” of inhibitors. The goal for the next 3 decades will be to design inhibitors that will be effective for more than a single class of β-lactamases.

Three Decades of β-Lactamase Inhibitors

In recent years, there has been an ever-increasing need for rapid reactions that meet the three main criteria of an ideal synthesis: efficiency, versatility, and selectivity. Such reactions would allow medicinal chemistry to keep pace with the multitude of information derived from modern biological screening techniques. The present review describes one of these reactions, the 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition ("click-reaction") between azides and alkynes catalyzed by copper (I) salts. The simplicity of this reaction and the ease of purification of the resulting products have opened new opportunities in generating vast arrays of compounds with biological potential. The present review will outline the accomplishments of this strategy achieved so far and outline some of medicinal chemistry applications in which click-chemistry might be relevant in the future.

Click chemistry reactions in medicinal chemistry: applications of the 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition between azides and alkynes.

Pharmaceutical cocrystals: along the path to improved medicines.

http://www.gbv.de/dms/bs/toc/226035883.pdf

Burger's medicinal chemistry and drug discovery

The electronic requirements around the C1-C3 region of pseudomonic acid analogues were investigated. Synthetic routes were developed to access a range of compounds where the alpha, beta-unsaturated ester moiety had been replaced by a 5-membered ring heterocycle. The inhibition of isoleucyl tRNA synthetase from Staphylococcus aureus NCTC 6571 was determined as was the minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) of the test compounds against that organism. Compounds possessing a region of electrostatic potential corresponding to that of the carbonyl group in the alpha, beta-unsaturated ester, and a low-energy unoccupied molecular orbital in the region corresponding to the double bond, were found to have IC50 values of 0.7-5.3 ng mL-1. However the MIC values of these compounds were in the range 2.0-8.0 micrograms mL-1, reflecting their poorer penetration into the bacterial cell.

The chemistry of pseudomonic acid. 18. Heterocyclic replacement of the alpha,beta-unsaturated ester: synthesis, molecular modeling, and antibacterial activity.

Molecular recognition of tyrosinyl adenylate analogues by prokaryotic tyrosyl tRNA synthetases.

Sodium (5RS)-Z-6-(heterocyclylmethylene)penem-3-carboxylates (2) are a series of extremely potent inhibitors of bacterial beta-lactamases. A variety of 5-membered heteroaromatic derivatives have been prepared and structure-activity studies reveal a preferred substituent orientation. One of these derivatives, the 1-methyl-1,2,3-triazolyl compound (5m) is a more potent synergist of amoxycillin than clavulanic acid, sulbactam or tazobactam.

6-(substituted methylene)penems, potent broad spectrum inhibitors of bacterial beta-lactamase. III. Structure-activity relationships of the 5-membered heterocyclic derivatives.

The key step in the preparation of the title compound (BRL 42715) from 6-aminopenicillanic acid was the condensation of the anion, generated by deprotonation of p-methoxybenzyl (5R,6S)-6-bromopenem-3-carboxylate(10), with 1-methyl-1,2,3-triazole-4-carbaldehyde; in situ acylation, followed by reductive elimination afforded the isomeric (Z)- and (E)-6-triazolylmethylene penem esters, (12) and (13) respectively.

A novel and stereocontrolled synthesis of (5R)-(Z)-6-(1-methyl-1,2,3-triazol-4-ylmethylene)penem-3-carboxylic acid, a potent broad spectrum β-lactamase inhibitor

Neal Frederick Osborne

Papers

Burger's medicinal chemistry and drug discovery

The chemistry of pseudomonic acid. 18. Heterocyclic replacement of the alpha,beta-unsaturated ester: synthesis, molecular modeling, and antibacterial activity.

Molecular recognition of tyrosinyl adenylate analogues by prokaryotic tyrosyl tRNA synthetases.

6-(substituted methylene)penems, potent broad spectrum inhibitors of bacterial beta-lactamase. III. Structure-activity relationships of the 5-membered heterocyclic derivatives.

A novel and stereocontrolled synthesis of (5R)-(Z)-6-(1-methyl-1,2,3-triazol-4-ylmethylene)penem-3-carboxylic acid, a potent broad spectrum β-lactamase inhibitor