The cariogenic processes are mainly caused by the bacterium Streptococcus mutans (S. mutans) and consist of the demineralization of the tooth that occurs when the acid production overcomes the natural repair or if a problem occurs in the last one. In this work, we performed the synthesis of twenty-one 1,4-naphthoquinones tethered to 1,2,3-1H-triazoles (8a-8k and 9a-9j), antibacterial evaluation against the S. mutans in vitro and the acute toxicity of the better ones in vivo. We observed strong inhibition results in the disc diffusion test ranging, the halos of inhibitions, from 18.66 (± 0.57) to 29 (± 2.64) mm, and good values in the minimum inhibitory concentration (5 to 50 μg), for the compounds 9e, 9h, 9i and 9j: Furthermore, they do not have a cytotoxic effect at the concentrations tested. Besides that, in the in vivo test, they show some slight alteration in the histopathological analyses and the biochemistry. Thus, we found four potential candidates to become instruments for the treatment of cavities.

For billions of years, the phenomena of life and biocatalysis have been intertwined. If in the beginning biocatalysis was fundamental for the origin of life, currently it is very important for the cleaner production of pharmaceuticals and fine chemical intermediates. There is no doubt that drugs have brought great benefits to humanity, but currently, the expectations of modern society are focused on drugs with greater safety, less environmental impact, more sustainable practices, and less energy use. This review intends to show how the challenges for the production of some low molecular weight drugs produced by synthetic routes that involve at least one biotechnological step using microorganisms or enzymes were faced. These biotechnological drug production routes are more sustainable than conventional synthetic routes, as they produce a much smaller amount of waste, use moderate reaction conditions, have lower energy consumption, and have lower metal consumption, in addition to being more selective. Additionally, many natural products have structures too complex to be produced exclusively by chemical routes. The large-scale and economical production of these drugs is of great importance for fighting cancer as well as inflammatory, infectious, autoimmune, metabolic, hormonal, cardiovascular, and neurological diseases, among others.

Chikungunya virus (CHIKV) is a re-emerging disease caused by an alphavirus of the Togaviridae family. Since its first description in 1952, the disease has spread worldwide, affecting populations in both tropical and temperate countries. To date, there is no licensed vaccine or specific pharmacological treatment. Therefore, there is an increasing urgency in developing new antiviral drugs capable of specifically inhibiting viral replication. In the present work, we report the synthesis and antiviral activity evaluation of nineteen naphthoquinone derivatives, containing a sulfonamide or sulfonate group. Cell viability assays indicated a low toxic potential for all tested compounds and inhibitory assays against CHIKV identified five compounds with potent activity. The compounds were also evaluated for their virucidal potential, and the results demonstrated that compound 11a exhibited a virucidal effect higher than 70% in the treatment with 20 µM. Furthermore, in silico studies were performed to predict the antiviral drug targets.

Furanaphthoquinones are well known in medicinal chemistry for exhibiting relevant structural heterogeneity and bioactivities. In this work, it was synthesized a series of furanaphthoquinones through a tandem reaction between lawsone (8) and cyclic ketones in the presence of morpholine. This strategy provides an efficient and general method for synthesizing furanaphthoquinones with activity against the epimastigote form of Trypanosoma cruzi (T. cruzi), the parasite that causes Chagas disease. Compound 9b was the better prototype, and it exhibited high potency for causing parasite death, showed reduced acute toxicity towards mammalian cells, and was capable of rupturing the epimastigote plasma membrane and acting on sterol 14α-demethylase (CYP51). Additionally, 9b reduced trypomastigote viability by 99% after 24 h. Candidate 9b demonstrated the best and most promising profile when bound to CYP51.

Quinones and organochalcogens are classes of compounds with great biological applicability, such as antioxidant, anticancer, anti-Alzheimer, and antidepressant activities, among others. Thus, the combination of these two classes of compounds is important to obtain new hits with biological activities that are additive or synergistic. Several methodologies for the preparation of this class of hybrid compound have been widely described. Many of the prepared hybrid molecules have shown increased biological activities and, in some cases, to act as two distinct pharmacophores. In this review, methods for the preparation of selenium-quinones, tellurium-quinones and their biological applications are highlighted.

Acetylated compounds prepared from naphthoquinones have been reported as antitumoral prodrugs. Exploring the synthetic versatility of the naphthoquinone and triazolic nuclei, herein we report a simple and efficient synthetic route to prepare a series of sixteen prodrugs prototype of 1,2,3-triazoles-naphthoquinodoic acetyl derivatives. The compounds 10a-10h and 11a-11h were obtained by oxidative cycloaddition reaction between lawsone and 4-vinyl-1H-1,2,3-triazoles promoted by ceric ammonium nitrate (CAN) in alkaline medium followed by reductive acetylation of the quinones in excess of metallic zinc and acetic anhydride in yields up to > 98%. All derivatives revealed to be hemocompatible and the compound 11e exhibited the most promising profile against Caco-2 cells showing the higher selectivity index. Molecular docking suggests that these compounds could exert their cytotoxic activity through inhibition of one topoisomerase II isoform, at least.

Zika virus (ZIKV) is a mosquito-borne pathogen which is a current global public health concern. There are currently no approved vaccines or antivirals against ZIKV infection. Taking into account that naphthoquinones have shown promising antiviral activity, the aim of this study was to describe the screening of two bis-naphthoquinones series against ZIKV. Twenty seven compounds were evaluated against ZIKV using Vero cells. The findings showed that among the compounds analyzed four were promising. Compound 3,3’-((2-nitrophenyl)methylene)bis(2-hydroxynaphthalene-1,4-dione) containing the nitro group at the ortho position showed the best selectivity index, followed by compound 3,3’-(4-chlorophenylmethylene)bis(naphthalene-1,2,4-triyl triacetate) with the chlorophenylmethylene radical. These results demonstrate that these bis-naphthoquinones are largely effective in inhibiting the replication of ZIKV.

Electrochemical methods are powerful in the characterization and design of redox-modulating agents. We, herein, report the electrochemical investigation, in aprotic medium, of eleven synthetic 3-thio-substituted-nor-beta-lapachones, along with the determination of cytotoxic activity and correspondent selectivity index, against several cancer cell lines and one normal cell. Four of the quinones are novel compounds. The redox behavior is representative of two independent systems: the easy reduction of the quinone moiety and, at far more negative potential, the reductive cleavage of the C-S-C bonding; and the anodic part controlled by the oxidation of the sulfur moiety. The compounds have shown relevant cytotoxic activity, with emphasis on 3-phenyl-thio-2,2-dimethyl-2,3-dihydronaphtho[1,2-b]furan-4,5-dione (compound 2), which mechanism of molecular action was shown to be related to reactive oxygen species (ROS) release. Despite the absence of a linear correlation, there is a trend: the majority of the thionaphthoquinones, with values of first wave reduction potential, less negative than -0.65 V, were active. The less electrophilic compound (3-(cyclohexylthio)-2,2-dimethyl-2,3-dihydronaphtho[1,2-b]furan-4,5-dione, cyclohexyl derivative) is also the less cytotoxic toward cancer cells. Agents containing chalcogens and quinones can be used to attack entities with a disturbed redox balance.

ABSTRACT Naphthoquinones are the most commonly occurring type of quinones in nature. They are a diverse family of secondary metabolites that occur naturally in plants, lichens and various microorganisms. This subgroup is constantly being expanded through the discovery of new natural products and by the synthesis of new compounds via innovative techniques. Interest in quinones and the search for new biological activities within the members of this class have intensified in recent years, as evidenced by the evaluation of the potential antimicrobial activities of quinones. Among fungi of medical interest, yeasts of the genus Candida are of extreme importance due to their high frequency of colonization and infection in humans. The objective of this review is to describe the development of naphthoquinones as antifungals for the treatment of Candida species and to note the most promising compounds. By using certain criteria for selection of publications, 68 reports involving both synthetic and natural naphthoquinones are discussed. The activities of a large number of substances were evaluated against Candida albicans as well as against 7 other species of the genus Candida. The results discussed in this review allowed the identification of 30 naphthoquinones with higher antifungal activities than those of the currently used drugs.

ABSTRACT The 1,2-naphthoquinone compound was previously considered active against solid tumors. Moreover, glycosidase inhibitors such as 1,2,3-1H triazoles has been pointed out as efficient compounds in anticancer activity studies. Thus, a series of eleven 1,2-naphthoquinones tethered in C2 to 1,2,3-1H-triazoles 9a-k were designed, synthesized and their cytotoxic activity evaluated using HCT-116 (colon adenocarcinoma), MCF-7 (breast adenocarcinoma) and RPE (human nontumor cell line from retinal epithelium). The chemical synthesis was performed from C-3 allylation of lawsone followed by iodocyclization with subsequent nucleophilic displacement with sodium azide and, finally, the 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition catalyzed by Cu(I) with terminal alkynes led to the formation of 1H-1,2,3-Triazol-1-ylmethyl-2,3-dihydronaphtho[1,2-b]furan-4,5-diones in good yields. Compounds containing aromatic group linked to 1,2,3-triazole ring (9c, 9d, 9e, 9i) presented superior cytotoxic activity against cancer cell lines with IC50 in the range of 0.74 to 4.4 µM indicating that the presence of aromatic rings substituents in the 1,2,3-1H-triazole moiety is probably responsible for the improved cytotoxic activity.

The synthesis of several new xanthenes based on the 1,3-dicarbonyl scaffolds lawsone and coumarin was developed using tandem three-component reactions involving the reagents ortho-hydroxybenzaldehyde, as bifunctional reagent, and an appropriate thiol. These reactions generated two series of para- and ortho-naphthoxanthenes that are structurally related to α- and β-pyranaphthoquinones and one series of coumarin-xanthene derivatives.

The crystal structures of (Z)-1-phenyl-4-[((2-phenylhydrazono)methyl)]-1H-1,2,3-triazole, (Z)-4-[(2-(2,4-dimethylphenyl)hydrazono)methyl]-2-phenyl-2H-1,2,3-triazole, (E)-4-[(2-(2,4-dinitrophenyl)hydrazono)methyl]-2-phenyl-2H-1,2,3-triazole, and (E)-N'-((2-phenyl-2H-1,2,3-triazol-4-yl)methylene)isonicotinohydrazide dihydrate are reported. The formations of (Z)- configurations about the C=N bonds in the first two compounds arise from the stabilizing presence of intramolecular N-H···N hydrogen bonds, while in the third compound, the presence of intramolecular N-H···O hydrogen bonds promotes an (E) geometry. The arrangement about the CONHC=N fragment in the hydrated acylhydrazone is EC(O)NH/EC=N. Also present in (E)-N'-((2-phenyl-2H-1,2,3-triazol-4-yl)methylene)isonicotinohydrazide is an interesting R44(8) ring formed from hydrogen bonds generated from four water molecules. Significant π···π stacking interactions are exhibited in three compounds, but not in the least planar first compound, in which the dominant intermolecular interactions are C-H···π interactions. Other intermolecular interactions in one of the compounds are C-H···π interactions, in another compound are C-H···O hydrogen bonds and N-O···π interactions, and in the last compound are O-H···X (X = O and N), N-H···O and C-H···O hydrogen bonds.

Siphoneugena Berg (Myrtaceae) é um pequeno gênero eugenióide segregado de Eugenia por Berg. A investigação fitoquímica de Siphoneugena densiflora foi realizada com o objetivo de se descobrir metabólitos secundários que possam ser considerados marcadores quimiotaxonômicos e auxiliar na distinção entre os dois gêneros. Cinco taninos hidrolisáveis inéditos foram isolados do extrato metanólico da casca da raiz e caracterizados como 4-O-alfa-L-2"-O- e seu isômero 4-O-alfa-L-3"-O-acetilramnopiranosídeo do ácido elágico, siphoneugenina, constituído por uma nova aglicona de estrutura dibenzo-1,4-dioxínica, 4-O-beta-D-6"- e 4-O-beta-D-3",6"-di-O-acetilglucopiranosídeo do ácido 3,4'-di-O-metilelágico, juntamente com o 4-O-alfa-L-4"-O-acetilramnopiranosídeo do ácido elágico, eschweilenol C, sitosterol, daucosterol, ramnose, casuarinina, castalagina e ácidos elágico, gálico e siríngico. Do extrato metanólico das folhas, além dos compostos conhecidos como a quercetina, quercitrina, guiajaverina, reinoutrina, chebulosídeo II, ácidos terminólico, madecássico e asiático, lupeol, alfa- e beta-amirina, foi isolado um novo triterpeno pentacíclico nomeado como 2alfa,3beta,6beta-triidroxiolean-12-en-28-ato de beta-D-glucopiranosila. Todas as substâncias foram identificadas através da análise dos dados espectrais e químicos obtidos, além da comparação com dados relatados na literatura.

Siphoneugena Berg (Myrtaceae) is a small eugenioid genus segregated from Eugenia by Berg. The phytochemical survey of Siphoneugena densiflora was carried out in order to find secondary metabolites which may be considered as chemotaxonomic characters and help to distinguish between the two genera. Five novel hydrolysable tannins were isolated from the methanolic extract of root bark and were characterized as ellagic acid 4-O-alpha-L-2"-O- and its isomer 4-O-alpha-L-3"-O-acetylrhamnopyranoside, siphoneugenin, that supports a new aglycone with a dibenzo-1,4-dioxin structure, 3,4'-di-O-methylellagic acid 4-O-beta-D-6"-O- and 4-O-beta-D-3",6"-diacetylglucopyranoside, accompanied by ellagic acid 4-O-alpha-L-4"-O-acetylrhamnopyranoside, eschweilenol C, sitosterol, daucosterol, rhamnose, casuarinin, castalagin, ellagic, gallic and syringic acids. From methanolic extract of leaves, in addition to the well known compounds quercetin, quercitrin, guiajaverin, reynoutrin, chebuloside II, terminolic, madecassic and asiatic acids, lupeol, alpha- and beta-amyrin, a new pentacyclic triterpene was isolated and named as beta-D-glucopyranosyl-2alpha,3beta,6beta-trihydroxyolean-12-en-28-ate. Structures were established on the basis of spectroscopic and chemical evidence, along with the comparison of the data reported in the literature.