The aim of the study was to investigate the solubility of piroxicam (Prx) depending on the inclusion complexation with various cyclodextrins (CDs) and on ethanol as a co-solvent. The phase-solubility method was applied to determine drug solubility in binary and ternary systems. The results showed that in systems consisting of the drug dissolved in ethanol–water mixtures, the drug solubility increased exponentially with a rising concentration of ethanol. The phase solubility measurements of the drug in aqueous solutions of CDs, β-CD and γ-CD exhibited diagrams of A_L-type, whereas 2,6-dimethyl-β-CD revealed A_P-type. The destabilizing effect of ethanol as a co-solvent was observed for all complexes regardless of the CD type, as a consequence of it the lowering of the complex formation constants. In systems with a higher concentration of ethanol, the drug solubility was increased in opposition to the decreasing complex formation constants. According to this study, the type of CDs played a more important role on the solubility of Prx, and the use of ethanol as a co-solvent exhibited no synergistic effect on the improvement of Prx solubility. The Prx solubility was increased again due to the better solubility in ethanol.

Targeted cancer therapy has become a high potential cancer treatment. Epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR), which plays an important role in cell signaling, enhanced cell survival and proliferation, has been suggested as molecular target for the development of novel cancer therapeutics. In this study, a series of chalcone derivatives was screened by in vitro cytotoxicity against the wild type (A431 and A549) and mutant EGFR (H1975 and H1650) cancer cell lines, and, subsequently, tested for EGFR-tyrosine kinase (TK) inhibition. From the experimental screening, all chalcones seemed to be more active against the A431 than the A549 cell line, with chalcones 1c, 2a, 3e, 4e, and 4t showing a more than 50% inhibitory activity against the EGFR-TK activity and a high cytotoxicity with IC₅₀ values of < 10 µM against A431 cells. Moreover, these five chalcones showed more potent on H1975 (T790M/L858R mutation) than H1650 (exon 19 deletion E746-A750) cell lines. Only three chalcones (1c, 2a and 3e) had an inhibitory activity against EGFR-TK with a relative inhibition percentage that was close to the approved drug, erlotinib. Molecular dynamics studies on their complexes with EGFR-TK domain in aqueous solution affirmed that they were well-occupied within the ATP binding site and strongly interacted with seven hydrophobic residues, including the important hinge region residue M793. From the above information, as well as ADMET (absorption, distribution, metabolism, excretion, and toxicity) properties, all three chalcones could serve as lead compounds for the development of EGFR-TK inhibitors.

Sorafenib (SOR) is an oral multikinase inhibitor that effectively hampers the growth and spread of cancer cells by targeting angiogenesis and proliferation. However, SOR tablets (Nexavar) have limited oral bioavailability, ranging from 38% to 49%, due to their low water solubility. To address this issue, cyclodextrins (CDs), widely used to enhance the solubility and stability of lipophilic drugs by encapsulating them within their molecular structure, were considered in this study. We focused on β-cyclodextrin (βCD) and its derivatives, including hydroxypropyl-β-cyclodextrin (HPβCD), dimethyl-β-cyclodextrin (DMβCD), sulfobutylether-β-cyclodextrin (SBEβCD), and compared them with γ-cyclodextrin (γCD) for generating inclusion complexes with SOR. The 200 ns molecular dynamics simulations revealed that SOR could form inclusion complexes with all CDs in two possible orientations: pyridine group insertion (P-form) and chlorobenzotrifluoride group insertion (C-form), primarily driven by van der Waals interactions. Among the four βCD derivatives studied, SOR exhibited the highest number of atom contacts with SBEβCD and demonstrated the lowest solvent accessibility within the hydrophobic cavity of SBEβCD. These findings correlated with the highest binding affinity of SOR/SBEβCD complex determined by SIE, MM/GBSA, and MM/PBSA methods. Experimental results further supported our computational predictions, in which SBEβCD exhibited a stability constant of 940 M⁻¹ at 25 °C, surpassing βCD's stability constant of 210 M⁻¹. Taken together, our results suggest that the modified CDs, particularly SBEβCD, hold promising potential as an efficient molecular encapsulating agent for SOR, offering improved solubility and stability for this lipophilic drug.

Dengue infection is caused by a mosquito-borne virus, particularly in children, which may even cause death. No effective prevention or therapeutic agents to cure this disease are available up to now. The dengue viral envelope (E) protein was discovered to be a promising target for inhibition in several steps of viral infection. Structure-based virtual screening has become an important technique to identify first hits in a drug screening process, as it is possible to reduce the number of compounds to be assayed, allowing to save resources. In the present study, pharmacophore models were generated using the common hits approach (CHA), starting from trajectories obtained from molecular dynamics (MD) simulations of the E protein complexed with the active inhibitor, flavanone (FN5Y). Subsequently, compounds presented in various drug databases were screened using the LigandScout 4.2 program. The obtained hits were analyzed in more detail by molecular docking, followed by extensive MD simulations of the complexes. The highest-ranked compound from this procedure was then synthesized and tested on its inhibitory efficiency by experimental assays.

2-Hydroxypropyl-β-cyclodextrin (HPβCD) has unique properties to enhance the stability and the solubility of low water-soluble compounds by inclusion complexation. An understanding of the structural properties of HPβCD and its derivatives, based on the number of 2-hydroxypropyl (HP) substituents at the α-d-glucopyranose subunits is rather important. In this work, replica exchange molecular dynamics simulations were performed to investigate the conformational changes of single- and double-sided HP-substitution, called 6-HPβCDs and 2,6-HPβCDs, respectively. The results show that the glucose subunits in both 6-HPβCDs and 2,6-HPβCDs have a lower chance of flipping than in βCD. Also, HP groups occasionally block the hydrophobic cavity of HPβCDs, thus hindering drug inclusion. We found that HPβCDs with a high number of HP-substitutions are more likely to be blocked, while HPβCDs with double-sided HP-substitutions have an even higher probability of being blocked. Overall, 6-HPβCDs with three and four HP-substitutions are highlighted as the most suitable structures for guest encapsulation, based on our conformational analyses, such as structural distortion, the radius of gyration, circularity, and cavity self-closure of the HPβCDs.