The therapy of diseases due to immunodeficiency or the excessive immune response includes primarily the use of drugs which act on targets of adaptive immunity. However, the development of active substances that target the receptors of innate immunity represents the promising field in recent years.
Toll-like receptors (TLRs) represent a significant part of the innate immunity and the front-line defence system against foreign pathogens. TLRs recognise different pathogen- and damage-associated molecular patterns triggering a rapid inflammatory response via complex signalling pathways resulting in increased production of cytokines and other inflammatory agents as a part of adaptive immunity. Out of ten known TLRs found in humans, we focused in this thesis on TLR7, an endosomal receptor, which with its ectodomain specifically recognises single-stranded viral RNA thus being an important target for potential drugs – i.e., TLR7 agonists for treating virus infections, cancer, and asthma. Currently, the only TLR7 agonist on the market is imiquimod.
The synthesis of TLR7 agonists was based on structural features of the compound which combined elements of known TLR7 agonists and inhibitors of indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase and which demonstrated agonist activity on TLR7. The six-step synthetic route included the synthesis of oximes from commercially available aromatic aldehydes, their transformation to imidoyl chlorides, leading to the formation of isoxazolopyrimidine rings and then bicyclic system of isoxazolo[5,4-d]pyrimidine, the transformation into chlorides and in the final stage linking different amines onto the bicyclic system. By the selection of solvents and reaction conditions, we tried to achieve the highest yields and purity of the compounds.
We assessed the solubility of synthesized compounds in the cell media, evaluated potential cytotoxicity in the cell line HEK 293 and agonist activity on TLR7. It was found that synthetised compounds, due to their lipophilicity, dissolve poorly in cell media; therefore, agonism tests were carried out at low concentrations, where no agonist activity of compounds was observed.
Despite the unsuccessful attempt in producing a new TLR7 agonist, the foundations for further research in this field have been laid and the process of synthesis has been optimised up to bicyclic isoxazolo[5,4-d]pyrimidine compound.
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