Synthesis and in vitro evaluation of Ca2+ channel blockers 1,4-dihydropyridines analogues against Trypanosoma cruzi and Leishmania amazonensis: SAR analysis

Drugs containing the1,4-dihydropyridine (DHP) core have recently attracted attention concerning their anti parasitic effect against various species of Leishmania and Trypanosoma. This approach named drugs repositioning led to interesting results, which have prompted us to prepare 21 DHP's analogues. The 1,4-DHP scaffold was decorated with different function groups at tree points including the nitrogen atom (NH and N -phenyl), the aryl group attached to C-4 (various substituted aryl residues) and the carbon atoms 2 and 6 (bearing Ph or Me groups). Moreover, the products were evaluated for their cytotoxicity on three cancer and a non -tumoral cell lines. Only 6 of them were antiproliferative and their weak effect (CC50 comprised between 27 and 98 mu M) suggested these DHP5 as good candidates against the intracellular amastigote forms of L. amazonensis and T. cruzi. L. amazonensis was sensitive to DHP5 5, 11 and 15 (IC50 values at 15.11, 45.70 and 53.13 mu M, respectively) while 12 of them displayed significant to moderate trypanocidal activities against T. cruzi. The best trypanocidal activities were obtained with compounds 2, 18 and 21 showing IC50 values at 4.95, 5.44, and 6.64 mu M, respectively. A part of the N-phenylated DHP5 showed a better selectivity than their NH analogues towards THP-1 cells. 4-Chlorophenyl, 4-nitrophenyl and 3-nitrophenyl residues attached to the carbon atom 4 turned to be important sub -structures for the antitrypanosomal activity.