N-sulfonylpiperidinedispiro-1,2,4,5-tetraoxanes exhibit potent in vitro antiplasmodial activity and in vivo efficacy in mice infected with P. berghei ANKA

The artemisinin resistance has posed a serious threat against malaria elimination lately. Past few years have seen important development of several peroxide based medicinal compounds and their derivatives such as trioxanes and tetraoxanes. Here, we report a rapid, one-pot method for synthesizing a new series of N-sulfonylpiperidine dispiro-1,2,4,5-tetraoxane analogs with diverse substitution on the tetraoxane ring i.e., various substituted alkyl and aryl sulfonyl chlorides, as well as cyclic, acyclic and aryl substituted ketones. All the synthesized tetraoxanes were characterized by spectroscopic (¹H NMR,¹³C NMR), and spectrometric (High-resolution mass spectrometry) techniques and quantify by High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) analysis. The structure of compound 19 was confirmed by single crystal XRD. From the overall preliminary in vitro data, analogs 14, 16, 19, 20, 24, 41, and 44 exhibited potential IC₅₀ values in the nanomolar range between 4.7 ± 0.3 to 12.9 ± 1.1 nM against P. falciparum (Pf3D7) strains of human malaria Parasite. Furthermore, these selective analogs were evaluated in vivo for their antimalarial potential against P. berghei and results revealed that analogue 24 rapidly kills the infected cell at asexual erythrocytic stage, with activity comparable to positive control chloroquine.

Antimalarials; Endoperoxides; P. berghei; P. falciparum; Tetraoxanes.