Derivados de 2-hidróxi-3-anilino-1,4-naftoquinona: atividade antiplasmodial in vitro, toxicidade e interferência na biossíntese de isoprenóides

Abstract

The resistance to antimalarial drugs available on the market leads to the need for the development of new compounds with novel pharmacological targets. The naphthoquinone derivatives are described as promising compounds leading to the development of antimalarial drugs. That said, we evaluated the antiplasmodial in vitro activity of three derivatives of hydroxy-naphthoquinones against asexual intraeritrocitic stage of Plasmodium falciparum, as well as toxicological in vitro and in vivo parameters and investigate a possible mechanism of action related to the isoprenoid pathway through metabolic markers via the precursors of radioactive tritium, complete with docking studies with a template of octaprenil pyrophosphate synthase. Hydroxy-naphthoquinones derivatives analyzed had good antiplasmodial activity with IC50 less than 20 μM for 3D7 strain and less than 50 μM for Dd2 strain. The therapeutic window is safe with selectivity index ranging between 36.7 and 143.0. The compounds did not cause hemolysis at the doses tested (10 and 50 times greater than their IC50), and not triggered signs of toxicity in acute toxicity test in vivo even though the compound 4a have promoted hepatic steatosis and haemorrhage in kidney tissue. Whereas a likely mechanism of action, the hydroxy-naphthoquinones derivatives appear to inhibit the synthesis of isoprenic precursors, especially menaquinone and tocopherol and docking studies revealed nine possible interactions with high energy in four different binding sites with a template of octaprenil pyrophosphate synthase. In our results, the compound 4c was the most promising, since it possessed the lowest IC50 in antiplasmodial test in vitro, lower cytotoxicity in vitro and in vivo acute toxicity, and has inhibited the three via the tested isoprenoid products, might be considered a standard candidate for the process "hit-to-lead.