Synthesis,Anticancer Screening of Some Novel Trimethoxy Quinazolines and VEGFR2, EGFR Tyrosine Kinase Inhibitors Assay; Molecular Docking Studies

A new series of 8-methoxy-2-trimethoxyphenyl-3-substituted quinazoline-4(3)-one compounds were designed, synthesized, and screened for antitumor activity against three cell lines, namely, Hela, A549, and MDA compared to docetaxel as reference drug. The molecular docking was performed using Autodock Vina program and 20 ns molecular dynamics (MD) simulation was performed using GROMACS 2018.1 software. Compound 6 was the most potent antitumor of the new synthesized compounds and was evaluated as a VEGFR2 and EGFR inhibitor with (IC50, 98.1 and 106 nM respectively) compared to docetaxel (IC50, 89.3 and 56.1 nM respectively). Compounds 2, 6, 10, and 8 showed strong cytotoxic activities against the Hela cell line with IC50 of, 2.13, 2.8, 3.98, and 4.94 µM, respectively, relative to docetaxel (IC50, 9.65 µM). Compound 11 showed strong cytotoxic activity against A549 cell line (IC50, 4.03 µM) relative to docetaxel (IC50, 10.8 µM). Whereas compounds 6 and 9 showed strong cytotoxic activity against MDA cell line (IC50, 0.79, 3.42 µM, respectively) as compared to docetaxel (IC50, 3.98 µM).     

Novel and Potential Small Molecule Scaffolds as DYRK1A Inhibitors by Integrated Molecular Docking-Based Virtual Screening and Dynamics Simulation Study

The dual-specificity tyrosine phosphorylation-regulated kinase 1A (DYRK1A) is a novel, promising and emerging biological target for therapeutic intervention in neurodegenerative diseases, especially in Alzheimer’s disease (AD). The molMall database, comprising rare, diverse and unique compounds, was explored for molecular docking-based virtual screening against the DYRK1A protein, in order to find out potential inhibitors. Ligands exhibiting hydrogen bond interactions with key amino acid residues such as Ile165, Lys188 (catalytic), Glu239 (gk+1), Leu241 (gk+3), Ser242, Asn244, and Asp307, of the target protein, were considered potential ligands. Hydrogen bond interactions with Leu241 (gk+3) were considered key determinants for the selection. High scoring structures were also docked by Glide XP docking in the active sites of twelve DYRK1A related protein kinases, viz. DYRK1B, DYRK2, CDK5/p25, CK1, CLK1, CLK3, GSK3β, MAPK2, MAPK10, PIM1, PKA, and PKCα, in order to find selective DYRK1A inhibitors. MM/GBSA binding free energies of selected ligand–protein complexes were also calculated in order to remove false positive hits. Physicochemical and pharmacokinetic properties of the selected six hit ligands were also computed and related with the proposed limits for orally active CNS drugs. The computational toxicity webserver ProTox-II was used to predict the toxicity profile of selected six hits (molmall IDs 9539, 11352, 15938, 19037, 21830 and 21878). The selected six docked ligand–protein systems were exposed to 100 ns molecular dynamics (MD) simulations to validate their mechanism of interactions and stability in the ATP pocket of human DYRK1A kinase. All six ligands were found to be stable in the ATP binding pocket of DYRK1A kinase.     

Fabrication of Membrane Sensitive Electrodes for the Validated Electrochemical Quantification of Anti-Osteoporotic Drug Residues in Pharmaceutical Industrial Wastewater

Accurate and precise application of ion-selective electrodes (ISEs) in the quantification of environmental pollutants is a strenuous task. In this work, the electrochemical response of alendronate sodium trihydrate (ALN) was evaluated by the fabrication of two sensitive and delicate membrane electrodes, viz. polyvinyl chloride (PVC) and glassy carbon (GC) electrodes. A linear response was obtained at concentrations from 1 × 10⁻⁵ to 1 × 10⁻² M for both electrodes. A Nernstian slope of 29 mV/decade over a pH range of 8–11 for the PVC and GC membrane electrodes was obtained. All assay settings were carefully adjusted to obtain the best electrochemical response. The proposed technique was effectively applied for the quantification of ALN in pure form and wastewater samples, acquired from manufacturing industries. The proposed electrodes were effectively used for the determination of ALN in real wastewater samples without any prior treatment. The current findings guarantee the applicability of the fabricated ISEs for the environmental monitoring of ALN.     

A Flat-Gain Double-Pass Amplifier with New Hafnia-Bismuth-Erbium Codoped Fiber

An efficient and compact double-pass optical fiber amplifier is demonstrated using a newly developed hafnia bismuth erbium co-doped fiber(HBEDF) as a gain medium. The HBEDF is fabricated using a modified chemical vapor deposition in conjunction with solution doping. The fiber has an erbium ion concentration of 12500 ppm.At the optimum length of 0.5 m, the HBEDF amplifier(HBEDFA) achieves a flat gain of 26 d B with a gain variation of less than 1.5 d B within a wavelength region from 1530 to 1560 nm when the input signal and pump power are fixed at-30 d Bm and 140 m W, respectively. On the other hand, at the input signal power of-10 d Bm,the HBEDFA also achieves a flat gain of 14.2 d B with a gain variation of less than 2.5 d B within a wide wavelength region from 1525 to 1570 nm. Compared with the conventional zirconia erbium co-doped fiber based amplifier,the proposed HBEDFA obtains a more efficient gain and lower noise figure. For an input signal of-30 d Bm, the gain improvements of 6.2 d B and 4.8 d B are obtained at 1525 nm and 1540 nm, respectively.     

Spectrophotometric and spectrodensitometric quantification of a new antiviral combination

Accurate, simple, and selective spectrophotometric and spectrodensitometric methods were developed and adopted to quantify velpatasvir (VPS) and sofosbuvir (SFV) concurrently in their pure forms and tablets. The spectrophotometric technique was based on the first derivative of ratio spectra (¹DD) technique and developed to determine VPS and SFV simultaneously in table formulation. However, the spectrodensitometric technique was based on thin-layer chromatography (TLC) and densitometry and developed to determine VPS and SFV simultaneously in tablet dosage form. Chromatographic separation was performed using chloroform:methanol 9.5:0.5 (%, v/v) as the mobile phase on glass-coated TLC plates. Detection was achieved using a 265-nm deuterium lamp in absorbance mode. Both analytical methods were validated according to the International Conference on Harmonization (ICH)-Q2B guidelines. The linearity in the range of concentration ranges of 1–50 μg/mL and 5–80 μg/mL were obtained for VPS and SFV, respectively, using ¹DD spectrometric method. However, the linearity in the range of 5–50 and 10–70 μg/band for VPS and SFV, respectively, were recorded using TLC–densitometric method. Accuracy was recorded ˃100% for VPS and SFV using both methods. This is the first TLC–densitometry method that can separate and quantify the studied mixture of the drugs. The proposed analytical methods were found to be accurate, precise, selective, robust and sensitive for simultaneous analysis of VPS and SFV in tablet dosage forms.

     

Validated Simultaneous Gradient Ultra-Performance Liquid Chromatographic Quantification of Some Proton Pump Inhibitor Drug Residues in Saudi Pharmaceutical Industrial Wastewater

Monitoring and quantification of active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) in the environment constitute important and challenging tasks, as they are directly associated with human health. Three commonly used proton pump inhibitors (PPIs), namely, omeprazole sodium (OMP), pantoprazole sodium (PNT), and lansoprazole sodium (LNZ) are well separated and quantified using ultra-performance liquid chromatography (UPLC) in pharmaceutical industrial wastewater. The separation of the studied drugs was performed on a stationary phase with a Waters^TM column (100 × 2.1 mm, 1.7 µm). The mobile phase was composed of methanol:0.05 M potassium dihydrogen phosphate buffer (adjusted to pH 7.5 using NaOH) (50:50, v/v). The elution process was done in gradient mode by changing the relative proportions of the mobile phase components with time to get an optimum separation pattern. The flow rate of the developing system was adjusted to 0.8 mL/minute. Detection of the separated drugs was performed at 230 nm. The studied drugs were quantified in the concentration range of 10–200 ng/mL for all drugs. The cited method was fully validated according to the international conference on harmonization (ICH-Q2B) guidelines, then it was applied successfully for quantification of the studied PPIs in real wastewater samples after their solid phase extraction (SPE).