Identification of Novel Flavonoids and Ansa-Macrolides with Activities against <i>Leishmania donovani</i> through Natural Product Library Screening

oleh: Trong-Nhat Phan, Hyeryon Lee, Kyung-Hwa Baek, Joo Hwan No

Format: Article
Diterbitkan: MDPI AG 2024-02-01

Deskripsi

The protozoan parasite <i>Leishmania donovani</i> is the causative agent of visceral leishmaniasis (VL), a potentially fatal disease if left untreated. Given the limitations of current therapies, there is an urgent need for new, safe, and effective drugs. To discover novel antileishmanial compounds from previously unexplored chemical spaces, we conducted a high-throughput screening (HTS) of 2562 natural compounds, assessing their activity against <i>L. donovani</i> promastigotes and intracellular amastigotes. Utilizing the criteria of ≥70% parasite growth inhibition and ≥70% host cell (THP-1) viability, we selected 100 inhibitors for half-maximal inhibitory concentration (IC<sub>50</sub>) value determination. Twenty-six compounds showed activities in both forms of <i>Leishmania</i> with a selectivity index of over 3. Clustering analysis resulted in four chemical clusters with scaffolds of lycorine (cluster 1), 5-hydroxy-9,10-dihydro-4<i>H</i>,8<i>H</i>-pyrano[2,3-<i>f</i>]chromene-4,8-dione (cluster 2), and semi-synthetic derivatives of ansamycin macrolide (cluster 4). The enantiomer of lycorine, BMD-NP-00820, showed the highest anti-amastigote activity with an IC<sub>50</sub> value of 1.74 ± 0.27 μM and a selectivity index (SI) > 29. In cluster 3, the most potent compound had an IC<sub>50</sub> value of 2.20 ± 0.29 μM with an SI > 23, whereas in cluster 4, with compounds structurally similar to the tuberculosis drug rifapentine, BMD-NP-02085 had an IC<sub>50</sub> value of 1.76 ± 0.28 μM, but the SI value was 7.5. Taken together, the natural products identified from this study are a potential source for the discovery of antileishmanial chemotypes for further development.