No abstract

Protein arginine methyltransferases (PRMTs) are proved to play vital roles in chromatin remodeling, RNA metabolism and signal transduction. Aberrant regulation of PRMT activity is associated with various pathological states such as cancer and cardiovascular disorders. Development and application of small molecule PRMT inhibitors will provide new avenues for therapeutic discovery. We combined pharmacophore-based virtual screening methods with radioactive methylation assays, six hits were identified as inhibitors against the predominant arginine methyltransferase PRMT1 within micromolar potency. Two potent compounds, A9 and A36, exhibitting the inhibitory effect by directly targeting substrate H4 other than PRMT1 and displayed even higher inhibition activity than the well-known PRMT inhibitors AMI-1 and stilbamidine. A9 significantly inhibits proliferation of castrate-resistant prostate cancer cells. Together, A9 may be a potential inhibitor against advanced hormone-independent cancers and the work will provide clues for the future development of specific compounds that block the interaction of PRMTs with their targets.

A series of ethyl 5-hydroxy-1H-indole-3-carboxylates 6A-10T were synthesized and evaluated for their anti-hepatitis B virus (HBV) activities in 2.2.15 cells. The IC50 and selective index of inhibition on replication of HBV DNA of compounds 10(L) (1.52 microg/ml, 9.38) and 10(P) (2.00 microg/ml, 8.85) were higher than those of the other evaluated compounds including lamivudine (7.02). Compounds 7E and 10J exhibited significant anti-HBV activities, and the IC50 values on replication of HBV DNA of these compounds were 24.90 and 15.41 microg/ml, respectively, which were far more potent than the positive control lamivudine 228.00 microg/ml.

A carbene-catalyzed reductive coupling reaction of carboxylic esters and substituted Hantzsch esters is disclosed. Key steps of this reaction include one-electron reduction of a carbene catalyst-bound acyl azolium intermediate to generate the corresponding radical intermediate for subsequent alkylation reactions. The reaction is promoted by irradiation with visible light without the involvement of transition-metal photocatalysts. Mechanistic studies suggest that direct photoexcitation of the in situ formed acyl azolium intermediate is likely responsible for this light-induced one-electron-reduction process. Photoexcitation converts the acyl azolium intermediate to a single-electron oxidant, enabling single-electron oxidation of Hantzsch esters to generate radical intermediates. Our reactions work well for a broad range of aryl carboxylic ester and Hantzsch ester substrates. Sophisticated structures, including those present in medicines, can be incorporated into ketone molecules using our approach via very mild conditions that tolerate various functional groups.

The combined use of gold as transition metal catalyst and N-heterocyclic carbene (NHC) as organic catalyst in the same solution for relay catalytic reactions was disclosed. The ynamide substrate was activated by gold catalyst to form unsaturated ketimine intermediate that subsequently reacted with the enals (via azolium enolate intermediate generated with NHC) effectively to form bicyclic lactam products with excellent diastereo-and enantio-selectivities.T he gold and NHC coordination and dissociation can be dynamic and tunable events,a nd thus allow the co-existence of both active metal and carbene organic catalysts in appreciable concentrations,f or the dual catalytic reaction to proceed.