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Anti-Trichomonas vaginalis activity of chalcone and amino-analogues

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Abstract

Trichomoniasis is the most common non-viral sexually transmitted disease worldwide and can lead to serious consequences in reproductive health, cancer, and HIV acquisition. The current approved treatment present adverse effects and drug resistance data on this neglected parasitic infection is underestimated. Chalcones are a family of molecules that present biological applications, such as activity against many pathogenic organisms including protozoan pathogens. Chalcone (1) and three amino-analogues (2–4) were synthesized by Claisen–Schmidt condensation reaction and had their activity evaluated against the parasitic protozoan Trichomonas vaginalis. This bioassay indicated the presence and position of the amino group on ring A was crucial for anti-T. vaginalis activity. Among these, 3′-aminochalcone (3) presented the most potent effect and showed high cytotoxicity against human vaginal cells. On the other hand, 3 was not able to exhibit toxicity against Galleria mellonella larvae, as well as the hemolytic effect on human erythrocytes. Trophozoites of T. vaginalis were treated with 3, and did not present significant reactive oxygen species (ROS) accumulation, but induced a significantly higher ROS accumulation in human neutrophils after co-incubation. T. vaginalis pyruvate:ferredoxin oxidoreductase (PFOR) and β-tubulin gene expression was not affected by 3.

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Funding

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq/Brazil), Marine Biotechnology Program (A.J.M., RedeMarAtivo, grant 408578/2013–0) and Universal Program (D.S.T., grant 443150/2014–1) supported this study. A.J.M., L.O.R, and T.T. thank CNPq for researcher fellowships (grants 303353/2016–3, 306251/2016–7, 312292/2017–1, respectively).

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Author notes

  1. Márcia Rodrigues Trein and Lígia Rodrigues e Oliveira contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratório de Pesquisa em Parasitologia, Faculdade de Farmácia, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Av. Ipiranga 2752, Porto Alegre, RS, 90610-000, Brazil

    Márcia Rodrigues Trein, Graziela Vargas Rigo, Brenda Petro-Silveira & Tiana Tasca

  2. Laboratory of Antibiotics and Chemotherapeutics, Institute of Biosciences, Humanities and Exact Sciences (Ibilce), São Paulo State University (Unesp), Rua Cristóvão Colombo 2265, São José do Rio Preto, SP, 15054-000, Brazil

    Lígia Rodrigues e Oliveira, Mayara Aparecida Rocha Garcia & Luis Octávio Regasini

  3. Departamento de Ciências Básicas da Saúde, Universidade Federal de Ciências da Saúde de Porto Alegre, Porto Alegre, RS, 90050-170, Brazil

    Danielle da Silva Trentin

  4. Laboratório de Biofilmes e Diversidade Microbiana, Faculdade de Farmácia, Universidade do Rio Grande do Sul, Av. Ipiranga 2752, Porto Alegre, RS, 90610-000, Brazil

    Alexandre José Macedo

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  1. Márcia Rodrigues Trein
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  2. Lígia Rodrigues e Oliveira
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  3. Graziela Vargas Rigo
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  9. Tiana Tasca
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Correspondence to Tiana Tasca.

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Trein, M.R., Rodrigues e Oliveira, L., Rigo, G.V. et al. Anti-Trichomonas vaginalis activity of chalcone and amino-analogues. Parasitol Res 118, 607–615 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00436-018-6164-4

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