Synthesis and preliminary hepatotoxicity evaluation of new caffeine-8-(2-thio)-propanoic hydrazid-hydrazone derivatives

Abstract

New series of caffeine-8-(2-thio)-propanoic hydrazid-hydrazone derivatives were designed and synthesized. The targed compounds were obtained in yields of 51 to 96% and their structures were elucidated by FTIR, 1 H NMR, 13 C NMR, MS and microanalyses. All of the compounds were found to be “drug-like” as they fulfill the criteria of drug-likeness, which includes the MDDR-like rule. The tested compounds were subjected to in silico prediction of substrate/metabolite specificity and Drug Induced Liver Injury (DILI). The prediction for indicated that the evaluated compounds would most probably act as CYP1A2 substrates. The performed in vitro studies didn’t reveal statistically significant hepatotoxicity of the tested compounds, probably due to the pro-oxidant effects expressed on sub-cellular (isolated rat liver microsomes) level. The obtained experimental results confirmed the predicted low hepatotoxicity for the tested structures. Based on these results the compounds may be considered as promising structures for design of future molecules with low hepatotoxicity.