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Inflammation is a natural process that is connected to various conditions and disorders such as arthritis, psoriasis, cancer, infections, asthma, etc. Based on the fact that cyclooxygenase isoenzymes (COX-1, COX-2) are responsible for the production of prostaglandins that play an important role in inflammation, traditional treatment approaches include administration of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), which act as selective or non-selective COX inhibitors. Almost all of them present a number of unwanted, often serious, side effects as a consequence of interference with the arachidonic acid cascade. In search for new drugs to avoid side effects, while maintaining high potency over inflammation, scientists turned their interest to the synthesis of dual COX/LOX inhibitors, which could provide numerous therapeutic advantages in terms of anti-inflammatory activity, improved gastric protection and safer cardiovascular profile compared to conventional NSAIDs. Τhiazole and thiazolidinone moieties can be found in numerous biologically active compounds of natural origin, as well as synthetic molecules that possess a wide range of pharmacological activities. This review focuses on the biological activity of several thiazole and thiazolidinone derivatives as COX-1/COX-2 and LOX inhibitors.

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Antioxidants are of great interest because of their involvement in important biological and industrial processes. According to Halliwell antioxidants are substances that at low concentration significantly delay or prevent oxidation. Chemically, oxidation is a process in which a loss of electrons occurs. Oxidants play a significant role in the pathogenesis of a number of disorders leading to oxidative stress. Oxidative stress may be defined as an imbalance between cellular production of reactive oxygen species and antioxidant defense mechanisms. ROS (e.g., superoxide radical, peroxynitryl, hydroxyl radical and hydrogen peroxide) are constantly produced as a result of metabolic reactions in living systems. Oxidative damage caused by ROS is responsible for many degenerative diseases such as cancer, atherosclerosis, diabetes, cirrhosis, Alzheimer's and inflammatory diseases. The aim of this review is to describe recent developments in the study of the antioxidant activity of thiazole and thiazolidinone derivatives, which are the core structure in a variety of pharmaceuticals with a broad spectrum of biological activity and their role in preventing the formation of ROS.

Background: Thiazole derivates as well as chalcones, are very important scaffold for medicinal chemistry. Literature survey revealed that they possess wide spectrum of biological activities among which are anti-inflammatory and antimicrobial. Objectives: The current studies describe the synthesis and evaluation of antimicrobial activity of twenty eight novel thiazole-based chalcones. Methods: The designed compounds were synthesized using classical methods of organic synthesis. The in vivo evaluation of antimicrobial activity was performed by microdilution method. Results: All compounds have shown antibacterial properties better than that of ampicillin and in many cases better than streptomycin. As far as the antifungal activity is concerned, all compounds possess much higher activity than reference drugs bifonazole and ketoconazole. The most sensitive bacterial species was B. cereus (MIC 6.5-28.4 µmol × 10-2/mL and MBC 14.2-105.0 µmol × 10-2/mL) while the most resistant ones were L. monocytogenes (MIC 21.4-113.6 µmol × 10-2/mL) and E. coli (MIC 10.7- 113.6 µmol × 10-2/mL) and MBC at 42.7-358.6 µmol × 10-2/mL and 21.4-247.2 µmol × 10-2/mL, respectively. All the compounds exhibited antibacterial activity against the three resistant strains, MRSA, P. aeruginosa and E.coli. with MIC and MBC in the range of 0.65-11.00 µmol/mL × 10-2 and 1.30-16.50 µmol/mL × 10-2. Docking studies were performed. Conclusion: Twenty-eight novel thiazole-based chalcones were designed, synthesized and evaluated for antimicrobial activity. The results showed that these derivatives could be lead compounds in search of new potent antimicrobial agents. Docking studies indicated that DNA gyrase, GyrB and MurA inhibition may explain the antibacterial activity.