In vitro and in silico evaluations of new aryloxy-1,4-naphthoquinones as anti-Trypanosoma cruzi agents

In the search for new therapeutic alternatives for Chagas disease, a series of six aryloxy -naphthoquinone derivatives were synthesized and evaluated in vitro against Trypanosoma cruzi epimastigotes of the Tulahuén 2, INC-5, and NINOA strains. The compounds 3d and 4a showed better or similar trypanosomicidal activity than the reference drug nifurtimox. In addition, 3d and 4a also elicited better trypanosomicidal activity than nifurtimox against T. cruzi bloodstream trypomastigotes. On the other hand, 3b showed the highest selective indexes (SI values between 44 and 500, in the three T. cruzi strains). Finally, molecular docking studies suggested that these compounds could be potential trypanothione reductase inhibitors. Therefore, based on these new results, we validated that the aryloxy-naphthoquinone scaffold is essential to obtain more selective cytotoxic and trypanosomicidal compounds.