Natural silicate materials, including zeolite clinoptilolite, have been shown to exhibit diverse biological activities and have been used successfully as a vaccine adjuvant and for the treatment of diarrhea. We report a novel use of finely ground clinoptilolite as a potential adjuvant in anticancer therapy. Clinoptilolite treatment of mice and dogs suffering from a variety of tumor types led to improvement in the overall health status, prolongation of life-span, and decrease in tumors size. Local application of clinoptilolite to skin cancers of dogs effectively reduced tumor formation and growth. In addition, toxicology studies on mice and rats demonstrated that the treatment does not have negative effects. In vitro tissue culture studies showed that finely ground clinoptilolite inhibits protein kinase B (c-Akt), induces expression of p21WAF1/CIP1 and p27KIP1 tumor suppressor proteins, and blocks cell growth in several cancer cell lines. These data indicate that clinoptilolite treatment might affect cancer growth by attenuating survival signals and inducing tumor suppressor genes in treated cells.
Synthesis of novel cyano- and amidino-substituted styryl-2-benzimidazoles and benzimidazo[1,2-a]quinolines by condensation reactions and photochemical dehydrocyclization and dehydrohalogenation cyclization is described. Thermal denaturation experiments reveal that cyclic derivatives considerably stabilize DNA double helix, while the effect of their acyclic analogues is negligible. According to the spectroscopic study of the interaction of cyclic derivative 19, we propose intercalation of benzimidazo[1,2-a]quinoline moiety into ct-DNA as a dominant interaction underlying biologically relevant effects of this compound, whereas for its acyclic derivative 11, we propose binding into the minor groove of DNA. All compounds show noticeable antiproliferative effect. Morpholino- and chloro-substituted compound 9 is the most active among all acyclic derivatives. All cyclic compounds were 2- to 10-fold more potent, which is correlated with their property to intercalate into DNA. The most active imidazolyl-substituted compound 19 inhibits topoisomerase II and induces strong G2/M cell cycle arrest, pointing to the impairment in mitotic progression. Its pronounced selectivity toward colon carcinoma cells encourages further development of this compound as a lead.
We have prepared a set of heterocyclic benzimidazole derivatives bearing amidino substituents at C-5 of benzimidazole ring, by introducing various heterocyclic nuclei (pyridine, N-methyl-pyrrole or imidazole) at C-2, and evaluated their antitumor and antiviral activities. The most pronounced antiproliferative activity was shown with compounds 6 and 9, having imidazolinylamidino-substituent. Interestingly, all compounds show remarkable selectivity towards breast cancer cell line MCF-7. The most distinct and selective antiviral activity towards Coxackieviruses and Echoviruses was observed with compounds having pyridine ring at C-2. Especially interesting was fairly strong activity of 4 and 8 toward adenoviruses, which could be considered as leads against adenoviral replication.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.