The leishmanicidal potential of benzophenones has been described, some of them highlighting their potential as cysteine protease inhibitors. Therefore, this work described leishmanicidal activity of nine benzophenone derivatives (1a-c;2a-c;3a-c) against intramacrophage amastigote forms of Leishmania(L.)amazonensis (IC50) and the cytotoxic effect on murine peritoneal macrophages (CC50). The derivative 1c exhibited a selectivity index SI (CC50/IC50) of 6.7, besides cytotoxicity lower than Amphotericin B (p< 0.05). Moreover it showed inhibitory activity against papain (42.8±0.3, p<0.05), and when tested on trypanosomatids cysteine proteases 1c also proved to be a potent inhibitor of rCPB2.8, rCPB3.0 and cruzain, showing non-competitive inhibition mechanism by enzymatic assays in vitro.So, benzophenone 1c is interesting drug candidate prototype, with a multi-target directed mode of action, inhibiting rCPB2.8, rCPB3.0 and cruzain.
Keywords: Benzophenone derivatives; Cysteine proteases; Leishmania amazonensis.
Copyright © 2015. Published by Elsevier Masson SAS.