A series of bis-thiosemicarbazone agents with coordinating groups capable of multiple metal coordination modes has been generated and evaluated for potential cytotoxic effects against melanoma (MelRm) and breast adenocarcinoma (MCF-7) cell lines. The bis-thiosemicarbazones in this study generally demonstrated superior cytotoxic activity against MelRm than MCF-7 in the absence of metal ion supplementation, but in most cases could not be considered superior to the reference thiosemicarbazone Dp44mT. The key structural features for the cytotoxic activity were the central metal binding atom on the aromatic core, the thiocarbonyl residue and the nature of substitution on the N4-terminus in terms of size and lipophilicity. The cytotoxicity of bis-thiosemicarbazone ligands improved significantly with Cu(II) supplementation, particularly against MCF-7 cells. The mechanism of cytotoxicity of bis-thiosemicarbazones was proposed to be dependent on the combined effect of metal mobilisation and ROS generation which is so called a "double-punch effect".
In this study, we report two high-resolution structures of the pyridoxal 5' phosphate (PLP)-dependent enzyme kynurenine aminotransferase-I (KAT-I). One is the native structure with the cofactor in the PLP form bound to Lys247 with the highest resolution yet available for KAT-I at 1.28 Å resolution, and the other with the general PLP-dependent aminotransferase inhibitor, aminooxyacetate (AOAA) covalently bound to the cofactor at 1.54 Å. Only small conformational differences are observed in the vicinity of the aldimine (oxime) linkage with which the PLP forms the Schiff base with Lys247 in the 1.28 Å resolution native structure, in comparison to other native PLP-bound structures. We also report the inhibition of KAT-1 by AOAA and aminooxy-phenylpropionic acid (AOPP), with IC50s of 13.1 and 5.7 μM, respectively. The crystal structure of the enzyme in complex with the inhibitor AOAA revealed that the cofactor is the PLP form with the external aldimine linkage. The location of this oxime with the PLP, which forms in place of the native internal aldimine linkage of PLP of the native KAT-I, is away from the position of the native internal aldimine, with the free Lys247 substantially retaining the orientation of the native structure. Tyr101, at the active site, was observed in two conformations in both structures.
Bis-thiosemicarbazones containing a central pyridyl core display potent antimalarial activity in vitro. The absence of the pyridyl core results in inactive compounds. It is likely that metal ion sequestration and subsequent reactive oxygen generation plays a role in the antimalarial activity of the series, the redox activity of the iron complexes of bis-thiosemicarbazones paralleling antimalarial activity. The activity of this series compares favourably to that of previously reported iron sequestering compounds.
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