2
B. Jasiewicz et al. / Bioorg. Med. Chem. Lett. xxx (2016) xxx–xxx
biochemistry of dithiocarbamates is of interest because of their
clinical use.29 Their biological properties include ability to influ-
ence oxidative stress, apoptosis and enzyme inhibition.30–33 More-
over, pyrrolidinedithiocarbamate is widely used as an inhibitor of
nuclear factor kappa B(NFkB) and this, or related compounds
may have therapeutic potential in inhibiting artheriosclerosis.34
Relying on the above reports, we expected that there will be some
advantage, in terms of biological activity, resulting from a syner-
gism between the biological actions of the caffeine and its sulfur
derivatives. We have therefore synthesized and characterised a
series of nine structurally diverse thio-caffeine analogues, that
included, 6-thiocaffeine, 2,6-dithiocaffeine, 8-thioalkyl derivatives,
8-(phenylsulfanyl)-caffeine and the newly synthesized 8-[(pyrro-
lidin-1-ylcarbonothioyl)sulfanyl]caffeine, and explored their
antioxidant activity as well as their effects on human erythrocytes
in vitro. Human red blood cells (RBCs) are widely used in the inves-
tigation of antioxidant activity of natural and newly obtained com-
pounds because there are the main targets for free radicals in the
circulatory system.35–38 Although RBCs contain enzymes that are
involved in defence against free radicals, namely catalase (CAT),
superoxide dismutase (SOD), glutathione reductase (GRd) and glu-
tathione peroxidase (GPx)39 they are not able to effectively elimi-
nate reactive oxygen species and as a result oxidative haemolysis
occurs. The water-soluble free radical generator 2,20-azobis(2-
methylpropionamidine) dihydrochloride (AAPH) is commonly
used for inducing RBCs membrane injury and oxidative haemolysis
in vitro. Thus, in the present study, AAPH was employed to exam-
ine the oxidative haemolysis in the presence or absence of the thio-
caffeine derivatives as well as the standard antioxidants, namely
Trolox and butylated hydroxytoluene (BHT).
The 6-thiocaffeine (2) and 2,6-dithiocaffeine (3) were synthe-
sized by reaction of caffeine with Lawesson’s reagent in toluene
(Scheme 1). Reaction of 8-bromocaffeine with an appropriate
sodium thiolate reagent in ethanol solution gives the C8 thiocaf-
feine analogues (4–10).40 The synthetic routes of these target com-
pounds are outlined in Scheme 2. All obtained compounds were
structurally (1H NMR, 13C NMR, FTIR, ESI-MS) characterised (see
Supplementary materials). For four of them the crystal structures
were determined.
The most noticeable differences in the NMR spectra were the
downfield shifts of signals corresponding to positions C5, C6 in
6-thio- or C2, C5 and C6 in 2,6-dithiocaffeine, as compared with
caffeine. The IR spectrum of 2 showed an absorption band near
O
O
CH3
CH3
H3C
O
H3C
O
N
N
6
6
N
2
N
2
8
8
+
R
Br
R-Na
N
N
N
N
CH3
CH3
(4-10)
R =
(4)
(5)
S
S
(8)
(9)
S
S
(6)
(7)
S
(10)
N
S
S
S
Scheme 2. Reaction and conditions: 1 equiv 8-bromocaffeine, 4 equiv sodium
thiolate, ethanol, reflux, 2–48 h. Time for completion of the reaction at reflux as
indicated by TLC.
1675 cmꢀ1 associated to the carbonyl group and absorption band
near 1110 cmꢀ1 associated to the thiocarbonyl group, whereas in
the spectrum of 3 we can observed absorption bands of two thio-
carbonyl groups at 1110 and 1070 cmꢀ1. The IR spectrum of com-
pound
5 as representative of the series (4–8), showed an
absorption band at 1319 and 1037 cmꢀ1 associated to the thioalkyl
group and absorption bands at 1702 and 1656 cmꢀ1 associated
to the carbonyl groups of the caffeine fragment. The IR spectrum
of compound
9 showed an absorption band at 3060 and
1440–1578 cmꢀ1 associated to the aromatic ring, whereas in the
IR spectrum of 10 the bands in 1400–1100 cmꢀ1 region are associ-
ated with NAC@SAS stretching vibrations. In the 1H NMR spectra
of compounds 4–10, three singlets in the range of 3.37–3.97 ppm
indicated the presence of the three methyl groups from caffeine
unit. Aromatic protons of compound 9 are present in the range of
7.60–7.30 ppm, while signals at 3.61 and 1.90 ppm present in the
spectra of 10 are connected with presence of pyrrolidine ring.
The 13C NMR spectrum of compound
9 showed signals at
132–127 ppm corresponding to the phenyl ring. Signal at about
O
CH3
12
10
H3C
5
4
N
7
8
6
N
1
2
3
N
N
9
O
11
CH3
(1)
LR
LR
1. 5 eq
5 eq
S
S
S
CH3
CH3
CH3
H3C
O
H3C
S
H3C
O
N
N
N
N
6
6
N
N
N
6
N
N
+
8
8
8
2
2
2
N
N
N
CH3
CH3
CH3
(2)
(3)
Scheme 1. Reaction and conditions: Caffeine (1), 1.5 or 5 equiv LW (Lawesson’s reagent), toluene, reflux at 25 h. Time for completion of the reaction at reflux as indicated by
TLC.