BACKGROUND: Neurotoxic chemical warfare agents can be classified as some of the most dangerous chemicals for humanity. The most effective of those agents are the Organophosphates (OPs) capable of restricting the enzyme Acetylcholinesterase (AChE), which in turn, controls the nerve impulse transmission. When AChE is inhibited by OPs, its reactivation can be usually performed through cationic oximes. However, until today, it has not been developed one universal defense agent, with complete effective reactivation activity for AChE inhibited by any of the many types of existing neurotoxic OPs. For this reason, before treating people intoxicated by an OP, it is necessary to determine the neurotoxic compound that was used for contamination, in order to select the most effective oxime. Unfortunately, this task usually requires a relatively long time, raising the possibility of death. Cationic oximes also display a limited capacity of permeating the Blood-Brain Barrier (BBB). This fact compromises their capacity to reactivating AChE inside the nervous system. METHODS: We performed a comprehensive search on the data about OPs available on the scientific literature today in order to cover all the main drawbacks still faced in the research for the development of effective antidotes against those compounds. RESULTS: Therefore, this review about neurotoxic OPs and the reactivation of AChE, provides insights for the new agents' development. The most expected defense agent is a molecule without toxicity and effective to reactivate AChE inhibited by all neurotoxic OPs. CONCLUSION: To develop these new agents, the application of diverse scientific areas of research, especially theoretical procedures as computational science (computer simulation, docking and dynamics), organic synthesis, spectroscopic methodologies, biology, biochemical and biophysical information, medicinal chemistry, pharmacology and toxicology, is necessary.
The compounds 7-chloro-9-(2-hydroxy-4,4-dimethyl-6-oxocyclohex-1-en-1-yl)-3,3-dimethyl-2,3,4,9-tetrahydro-1H-xanthen-1-one (5) and 5-[-7-chloro-2,4-dioxo-1H, 2H, 3H, 4H, 5H-chromeno[2,3-d]pyrimidin-5-yl)]-1,3-diazinane-2,4,6-trione (7), were synthesized from dimedone and barbituric acid and had their three-dimensional structures and precise chemical shifts assignments obtained by Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) from 1H, 13C, APT, COSY, HSQC, and HMBC spectra. Additional HOMO-LUMO DFT calculations corroborated the NMR results and pointed to the most stable stereoisomers of each compound. Besides, further docking and molecular dynamic studies suggest that the stereoisomers (9S)-7-chloro-9-(2-hydroxy-4,4-dimethyl-6-oxocyclohex-1-en-1-yl)-3,3-dimethyl-2,3,4,9-tetrahydro-1H-xanthen-1-one, and 5-[(5S)-7-chloro-2,4-dioxo-1H, 2H, 3H, 4H, 5H-chromeno[2,3-d]pyrimidin-5-yl)]-1,3-diazinane-2,4,6-trione of these compounds may act as DNA intercalators and qualify as potential leads for the development of new anticancer drugs.Communicated by Ramaswamy H. Sarma.
In this work, the new diaminochromenes: 2,5-dimono-8-methoxychromeno[4,3,2-de][1,6]naphthyridine-4-carbonitrile (4), 8-ethoxy-2-imino-3,4-dihydro-2H-chromene-3-carbonitrile-4-malononitrile (5), 2,5-diamino-8-ethoxychromene[4,3,2-de][1,6]naphthyridine-4-carbonotrile (6), were synthesized and fully characterized through 600 MHz using 1H, 13C, APT, gHSQC, gHMBC, ROESY-1D and gated decoupling 13C. Further docking studies suggested that these compounds are capable of intercalating with the Drew-Dickerson Dodecamer DNA and, therefore, be candidates to work as effective compounds to decrease the cancer radiotherapy.Communicated by Ramaswamy H. Sarma.
