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Inducing necroptosis in cancer cells has emerged as an effective strategy to overcome drug resistance. However, while organic small molecules have been extensively studied for this purpose, metal-based compounds have received relatively little attention as triggers of necroptosis. The development of ruthenium (II) hybrid compounds, particularly those containing triazene (Ru-TRZ), highlights a novel avenue for modulating necroptotic cell death. Here we show that incorporating a methyltriazene moiety, a known alkylating warhead, confers superior mitochondrial-targeting properties and enhances cell death compared to amide-containing counterparts. Ru-hybrid TRZ2 exhibits also antitumor efficacy against in vivo drug-resistant cancer cells. Mechanistically, we demonstrate that Ru-TRZ hybrids induce apoptosis. In addition, by activating downstream RIPK3-driven cell death, TRZ2 proficiently restrains normal mitochondrial function and activity, leading to cancer cell necroptosis. Finally, TRZ2 synergizes anti-proliferative activity and cell death effects induced by conventional drugs. In conclusion, Ru-TRZ2 stands as a promising ruthenium-based chemotherapeutic agent inducing necroptosis in drug resistant cancer cells.

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Alpha-synuclein (aSyn) is a central player in the pathogenesis of synucleinopathies due to its accumulation in typical protein aggregates in the brain. However, it is still unclear how it contributes to neurodegeneration. Type-2 diabetes mellitus is a risk factor for Parkinson's disease (PD). Interestingly, a common molecular alteration among these disorders is the age-associated increase in protein glycation. We hypothesized that glycation-induced neuronal dysfunction is a contributing factor in synucleinopathies. Here, we dissected the impact of methylglyoxal (MGO, a glycating agent) in mice overexpressing aSyn in the brain. We found that MGO-glycation potentiates motor, cognitive, olfactory, and colonic dysfunction in aSyn transgenic (Thy1-aSyn) mice that received a single dose of MGO via intracerebroventricular injection. aSyn accumulates in the midbrain, striatum, and prefrontal cortex, and protein glycation is increased in the cerebellum and midbrain. SWATH mass spectrometry analysis, used to quantify changes in the brain proteome, revealed that MGO mainly increase glutamatergic-associated proteins in the midbrain (NMDA, AMPA, glutaminase, VGLUT and EAAT1), but not in the prefrontal cortex, where it mainly affects the electron transport chain. The glycated proteins in the midbrain of MGO-injected Thy1-aSyn mice strongly correlate with PD and dopaminergic pathways. Overall, we demonstrated that MGO-induced glycation accelerates PD-like sensorimotor and cognitive alterations and suggest that the increase of glutamatergic signaling may underly these events. Our study sheds new light into the enhanced vulnerability of the midbrain in PD-related synaptic dysfunction and suggests that glycation suppressors and anti-glutamatergic drugs may hold promise as disease-modifying therapies for synucleinopathies.

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N-Ethylhexedrone (NEH) and buphedrone (Buph) are emerging synthetic cathinones (SC) with limited information about their detrimental effects within central nervous system. Objectives: To distinguish mice behavioural changes by NEH and Buph and validate their differential harmful impact on human neurons and microglia. In vivo safety data showed the typical induced behaviour of excitation and stereotypies with 4-64 mg/kg, described for other SC. Buph additionally produced jumping and aggressiveness signs, while NEH caused retropulsion and circling. Transient reduction in body-weight gain was obtained with NEH at 16 mg/kg and induced anxiolytic-like behaviour mainly with Buph. Both drugs generated place preference shift in mice at 4 and 16 mg/kg, suggestive of abuse potential. In addition, mice withdrawn NEH displayed behaviour suggestive of depression, not seen with Buph. When tested at 50-400 µM in human nerve cell lines, NEH and Buph caused neuronal viability loss at 100 µM, but only NEH produced similar results in microglia, indicating different cell susceptibilities. NEH mainly induced microglial late apoptosis/necrosis, while Buph caused early apoptosis. NEH was unique in triggering microglia shorter/thicker branches indicative of cell activation, and more effective in increasing microglial lysosomal biogenesis (100 µM vs. 400 µM Buph), though both produced the same effect on neurons at 400 µM. These findings indicate that NEH and Buph exert neuro-microglia toxicities by distinct mechanisms and highlight NEH as a specific inducer of microglia activation. Buph and NEH showed in vivo/in vitro neurotoxicities but enhanced specific NEH-induced behavioural and neuro-microglia dysfunctionalities pose safety concerns over that of Buph.

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N-ethylhexedrone (NEH) and buphedrone (BUPH) are synthetic drugs structurally related to natural cathinone. These synthetic cathinones (SC) are members of the heterogenous family of new psychoactive substances (NPS), which have caused major concern in scientific and forensic communities over the past years, due to their widespread consume. Thus, there is a constant need for monitoring the use of these new substances and gather knowledge on their metabolism and excretion profiles, in order to try to identify markers of NPS consumption. This study aimed at the identification and quantification of NEH, BUPH and selected phase I metabolites using HPLC-MS/MS. NEH, BUPH and some related metabolites were synthesized in-house and quantified in 24 h mice urine, following single dose administration of each drug (64 mg kg-1, i.p.). NEH and BUPH were quantified in mice urine at 58.3 ± 14.4 and 146.2 ± 14.9 µg mL-1, respectively. Similar metabolic pathways were observed for both drugs. Among the metabolites studied, the most excreted ones derived from N-dealkylation of either NEH or BUPH (at around 80 µg mL-1 of urine). Other metabolites resulting from ketone reduction and ketone reduction combined with N-dealkylation or 4-aryl hydroxylation (detected for the first time in non-ring substituted SC) were also identified and quantified. Urine samples were screened using liquid chromatography-high resolution mass spectrometry and various phase II metabolites, including N-acetylated, glucuronides and dicarboxylic acid conjugates were tentatively identified, some of them for the first time. This work is a contribution to the identification of metabolites from SC that can become potential markers to estimate drug consumption.

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A small library of "half-sandwich" cyclopentadienylruthenium(II) compounds of the general formula [(η5-C5R5)Ru(PPh3)(N-N)][PF6], a scaffold hitherto absent from the toolbox of antiplasmodials, was screened for activity against the blood stage of CQ-sensitive 3D7-GFP, CQ-resistant Dd2, and artemisinin-resistant IPC5202 Plasmodium falciparum strains and the liver stage of Plasmodium berghei. The best-performing compounds displayed dual-stage activity, with single-digit nanomolar IC50 values against blood-stage malaria parasites, nanomolar activity against liver-stage parasites, and residual cytotoxicity against HepG2 and Huh7 mammalian cells. The parasitic absorption/distribution of 7-nitrobenzoxadiazole-appended fluorescent compounds Ru4 and Ru5 was investigated by confocal fluorescence microscopy, revealing parasite-selective absorption in infected erythrocytes and nuclear accumulation of both compounds. The lead compound Ru2 impaired asexual parasite differentiation, exhibiting fast parasiticidal activity against both ring and trophozoite stages of a synchronized culture of the P. falciparum 3D7 strain. These results point to cyclopentadienylruthenium(II) complexes as a highly promising chemotype for the development of dual-stage antiplasmodials.

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Current trend of novel psychoactive substances (NPS) among teenagers is posing new clinical, scientific and forensic societal questions. Synthetic cathinones are among the most consumed groups of NPS appearing on the street market and internet on a regular basis. The properties of these substances change regularly, due to structural modification to circumvent legislation. This practice makes almost impossible to characterize its toxicological profiles on an acceptable time scale, mostly due to the time-consuming experiments that must be held in animal models or human cells by standard methods. Such an issue demands the development of a rapid and inexpensive methodology to be used as a high-throughput screening of cathinones' toxicity. The yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae shares highly conserved molecular and cellular mechanisms with human cells and has been used before for pharmacological drugs. In the present work it is proposed to use S. cerevisiae growth curves as a high throughput screening method to profile synthetic cathinones toxicity in a short time scale. The results obtained by S. cerevisiae growth curves analysis were compared to differentiated SH-SY5Y human neuronal cells and similar responses were found. The screening tool methodology has shown able to prioritize the most toxics NPS and can be useful for early warning programs on NPS.

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Tetrazole/tetrazolate monocyclopentadienyliron(II) and ruthenium(II) compounds of general formulas [(η5-C5H5)M(dppe)(N4(H)CC6H4NO2)][PF6]/[(η5-C5H5)M(dppe)(N4CC6H4NO2)] were investigated for their pH-switching second-order nonlinear optical (SONLO) properties. Compounds [(η5-C5H5)M(dppe)(N4CC6H4NO2)] (M = Fe, Ru) and compound [(η5-C5H5)Ru(dppe)(N4(H)CC6H4NO2)][PF6] were fully characterized by (1H-, 13C-, 31P-) NMR, cyclic voltammetry, and elemental analysis, and compounds [(η5-C5H5)Fe(dppe)(N4CC6H4NO2)] and [(η5-C5H5)Ru(dppe)(N4(H)CC6H4NO2)][PF6] were further characterized by single-crystal X-ray diffraction; the synthesis of [(η5-C5H5)Fe(dppe)(N4(H)CC6H4NO2)][PF6] was unsuccessful. Time-dependent density functional theory calculations were performed using PBE0 and CAM-B3LYP functionals to evaluate the first hyperpolarizability (ßtot) of the tetrazole/tetrazolate complexes and for a detailed analysis of the experimental data. Both functionals predict (i) high first hyperpolarizabilities for the tetrazolate complexes [(η5-C5H5)M(dppe)(N4CC6H4NO2)], with ßtot[Ru] ≈ 1.2ßtot[Fe], and (ii) a 3-fold reduction in ßtot[Ru] upon protonation, in complex [(η5-C5H5)Ru(dppe)(N4(H)CC6H4NO2)]+, forecasting [(η5-C5H5)Ru(dppe)(N4CC6H4NO2)]/[(η5-C5H5)Ru(dppe)(N4(H)CC6H4NO2)]+ complexes as on/off, pH-switchable SONLO forms.

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Eight ruthenium(ii) compounds of the general formula [(η(5)-C5H5)Ru(N-N)(PPh3)][PF6] were rationally designed, exhibiting high cytotoxicity against HCT116 human colon cancer cells, with IC50 between 14.56 and 1.56 µM; importantly, compounds 5Ru and 6Ru are the first reported ruthenium glycoconjugates exploiting glucose transporters, widely overexpressed in cancer, for cellular uptake.

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New ruthenium(II) and iron(II) organometallic compounds of general formula [(η(5)-C5H5)M(PP)Lc][PF6], bearing carbohydrate derivative ligands (Lc), were prepared and fully characterized and the crystal structures of five of those compounds were determined by X-ray diffraction studies. Cell viability of colon cancer HCT116 cell line was determined for a total of 23 organometallic compounds and SAR's data analysis within this library showed an interesting dependency of the cytotoxic activity on the carbohydrate moiety, linker, phosphane coligands, and metal center. More importantly, two compounds, 14Ru and 18Ru, matched oxaliplatin IC50 (0.45 µM), the standard metallodrug used in CC chemotherapeutics, and our leading compound 14Ru was shown to be significantly more cytotoxic than oxaliplatin to HCT116 cells, triggering higher levels of caspase-3 and -7 activity and apoptosis in a dose-dependent manner.

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Starting from (S)-tryptophanol, a formal synthesis of ent-rhynchophylline and ent-isorhynchophylline, involving stereoselective cyclocondensation, spirocyclization, and alkylation reactions, and the final adjustment of the oxidation level at the oxindole and piperidine moieties, is reported.

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RATIONALE: The gas-phase behaviour of six Ru(II) cyclopentadienyl-derived complexes with N-coordinated ligands, compounds with antitumor activities against several cancer lines, was studied. This was performed with the intent of establishing fragmentation pathways and to determine the Ru-L(N) and Ru-L(P) ligand bond dissociation energies. Such knowledge can be an important tool for the postulation of the mechanisms of action of these anticancer drugs. METHODS: Two types of instruments equipped with electrospray ionisation were used (ion trap and a Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance (FTICR) mass spectrometer). The dissociation energies were determined using energy-variable collision-induced dissociation measurements in the ion trap. The FTICR instrument was used to perform MS(n) experiments on one of the compounds and to obtain accurate mass measurements. Theoretical calculations were performed at the density functional theory (DFT) level using two different functionals (B3LYP and M06L) to estimate the dissociation energies of the complexes under study. RESULTS: The influence of the L(N) on the bond dissociation energy (D) of RuCp compounds with different nitrogen ligands was studied. The lability order of L(N) was: imidazole<1-butylimidazole<5-phenyl-1H-tetrazole<1-benzylimidazole. Both the functionals used gave the following ligand lability order: imidazole<1-benzylimidazole<5-phenyl-1H-tetrazole<1-butylimidazole. It is clear that there is an inversion between 1-benzylimidazole and 1-butylimidazole for the experimental and theoretical lability orders. The M06L functional afforded values of D closer to the experimental values. The type of phosphane (L(P) ) influenced the dissociation energies, with values of D being higher for Ru-L(N) with 1-butylimidazole when the phosphane was 1,2-bis(diphenylphosphino)ethane. The Ru-L(P) bond dissociation energy for triphenylphosphane was independent of the type of complex. CONCLUSIONS: The D values of Ru-L(N) and Ru-L(P) were determined for all six compounds and compared with the values calculated by the DFT method. For the imidazole-derived ligands the energy trend was rationalized in terms of the increasing extension of the σ-donation/π-backdonation effect. The bond dissociation energy of Ru-PPh(3) was independent of the fragmentations.

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Four cationic ruthenium(II) complexes with the formula [Ru(eta(5)-C(5)H(5))(PPh(3))(2)](+), with L = 5-phenyl-1H-tetrazole (TzH) 1, imidazole (ImH) 2, benzo[1,2-b;4,3-b'] dithio-phen-2-carbonitrile (Bzt) 3, and [5-(2-thiophen-2-yl)-vinyl]-thiophene-2-carbonitrile] (Tvt) 4 were prepared and characterized in view to evaluate their potentialities as antitumor agents. Studies by Circular Dichroism indicated changes in the secondary structure of ct-DNA. Changes in the tertiary structure of pBR322 plasmid DNA were also observed in gel electrophoresis experiment and the images obtained by atomic force microscopy (AFM) suggest strong interaction with pBR322 plasmid DNA; the observed decreasing of the viscosity with time indicates that the complexes do not intercalate between DNA base pairs. Compounds 1, 2, and 3 showed much higher cytotoxicity than the cisplatin against human leukaemia cancer cells (HL-60 cells).

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The straightforward enantioselective construction of the hydroquinoline ring system from 1,5-polycarbonyl derivatives, using (R)-phenyglycinol as a chiral latent form of ammonia, is reported. The process mimics the key steps believed to occur in nature in the biosynthesis of amphibian decahydroquinoline alkaloids. Diastereodivergent routes to enantiopure cis-2,5-disubstituted decahydroquinolines, including the alkaloid pumiliotoxin C (cis-195A), are developed.

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Inhibition of the growth of LoVo human colon adenocarcinoma and MiaPaCa pancreatic cancer cell lines by two new organometallic ruthenium(II) complexes of general formula [Ru(eta(5)-C(5)H(5))(PP) L][CF(3)SO(3)], where PP is 1,2-bis(diphenylphosphino)ethane and L is 1,3,5-triazine (Tzn) 1 or PP is 2x triphenylphosphine and L is pyridazine (Pyd) 2 has been investigated. Crystal structures of compounds 1 and 2 were determined by X-ray diffraction studies. Atomic force microscopy (AFM) images suggest different mechanisms of interaction with the plasmid pBR322 DNA; while the mode of binding of compound 1 could be intercalation between base pairs of DNA, compound 2 might be involved in a covalent bond formation with N from the purine base.

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