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Natural Products as Leads for Pharmaceutically Active Compounds

Kahnberg, Pia LU (2001)
Abstract
In the search for new pharmaceutically active compounds, it is recognized that Nature produces structurally different compounds in a great variety. By having the compounds or extracts tested in defined systems, new drugs or more often leads (a compound that has an interesting but moderate activity) can be found. When a lead is found, structurally similar compounds with modified functional groups are synthesized to find the structure-activity relationships (SAR:s).



The secondary metabolite pterulone, isolated from the basidomycete Pterula species 82168 shows an selective and interesting antifungal activity, inhibiting Complex I in the respiration chain. Methods to synthesize pterulone has been developed and a number of... (More)
In the search for new pharmaceutically active compounds, it is recognized that Nature produces structurally different compounds in a great variety. By having the compounds or extracts tested in defined systems, new drugs or more often leads (a compound that has an interesting but moderate activity) can be found. When a lead is found, structurally similar compounds with modified functional groups are synthesized to find the structure-activity relationships (SAR:s).



The secondary metabolite pterulone, isolated from the basidomycete Pterula species 82168 shows an selective and interesting antifungal activity, inhibiting Complex I in the respiration chain. Methods to synthesize pterulone has been developed and a number of analogues have been synthesized and tested on four different fungi, Mucor meihei, Paecilomyces variotii, Penicillium notatum, and Nematospora coryli. The structure-activity relationships were studied but no more efficient compounds than the natural product pterulone was obtained.



Flavones belong to a substance class flavonoids present in virtually all plants. 6-Methylflavone shows a quite high affinity for the benzodiazepine site of the GABAA receptor with a K1 value of 125 nM. A number of flavones have been synthesized and the final product, 5'-bromo-2'-hydoxy-6-methylflavone has 250 times higher affinity for the binding site compared to 6-methylflavone. An existing pharmacophore model has been refined and used in the design of new flavones. The flavones were tested in vitro on rat cortical membranes and the pharmacophore model was confirmed and further refined by the structure-activity relationships observed. The pharmacophore model was also built in the database search program Catalyst™, to find new structural classes of substances, i.e scaffold hopping, that fits the model and may bind to the receptor. Databases from Maybridge, NCI and ACD were used for this purpose and a number of hits were obtained. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
supervisor
opponent
  • Professor Jaroszewski, Jerzy
organization
publishing date
type
Thesis
publication status
published
subject
keywords
scaffold hopping, Catalyst, anxiety, benzodiazepine site, GABAA receptor, pharmacophore model, flavones, SAR, antifungal activity, Complex I, pterulone, Organic chemistry, Organisk kemi, Biochemical technology, Biokemisk teknik
pages
196 pages
publisher
Förvaltningsavdelningen, Alnarp,
defense location
Lecture Hall C
defense date
2002-01-11 10:15:00
language
English
LU publication?
yes
additional info
The information about affiliations in this record was updated in December 2015. The record was previously connected to the following departments: Organic chemistry (S/LTH) (011001240)
id
885ca02d-dee0-4963-94d7-3b9929b320b2 (old id 42264)
date added to LUP
2016-04-04 10:22:05
date last changed
2018-11-21 20:58:21
@phdthesis{885ca02d-dee0-4963-94d7-3b9929b320b2,
  abstract     = {{In the search for new pharmaceutically active compounds, it is recognized that Nature produces structurally different compounds in a great variety. By having the compounds or extracts tested in defined systems, new drugs or more often leads (a compound that has an interesting but moderate activity) can be found. When a lead is found, structurally similar compounds with modified functional groups are synthesized to find the structure-activity relationships (SAR:s).<br/><br>
<br/><br>
The secondary metabolite pterulone, isolated from the basidomycete Pterula species 82168 shows an selective and interesting antifungal activity, inhibiting Complex I in the respiration chain. Methods to synthesize pterulone has been developed and a number of analogues have been synthesized and tested on four different fungi, Mucor meihei, Paecilomyces variotii, Penicillium notatum, and Nematospora coryli. The structure-activity relationships were studied but no more efficient compounds than the natural product pterulone was obtained.<br/><br>
<br/><br>
Flavones belong to a substance class flavonoids present in virtually all plants. 6-Methylflavone shows a quite high affinity for the benzodiazepine site of the GABAA receptor with a K1 value of 125 nM. A number of flavones have been synthesized and the final product, 5'-bromo-2'-hydoxy-6-methylflavone has 250 times higher affinity for the binding site compared to 6-methylflavone. An existing pharmacophore model has been refined and used in the design of new flavones. The flavones were tested in vitro on rat cortical membranes and the pharmacophore model was confirmed and further refined by the structure-activity relationships observed. The pharmacophore model was also built in the database search program Catalyst™, to find new structural classes of substances, i.e scaffold hopping, that fits the model and may bind to the receptor. Databases from Maybridge, NCI and ACD were used for this purpose and a number of hits were obtained.}},
  author       = {{Kahnberg, Pia}},
  keywords     = {{scaffold hopping; Catalyst; anxiety; benzodiazepine site; GABAA receptor; pharmacophore model; flavones; SAR; antifungal activity; Complex I; pterulone; Organic chemistry; Organisk kemi; Biochemical technology; Biokemisk teknik}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  publisher    = {{Förvaltningsavdelningen, Alnarp,}},
  school       = {{Lund University}},
  title        = {{Natural Products as Leads for Pharmaceutically Active Compounds}},
  year         = {{2001}},
}