MINI REVIEW article

Front. Chem.

Sec. Medicinal and Pharmaceutical Chemistry

Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fchem.2025.1586044

This article is part of the Research TopicQuinoline as Lead Structures for the Development of Leishmanicidal AgentsView all 5 articles

Current Developments of Metal-and Metalloid-based Quinoline Compounds as Leishmanicidal Agents

Provisionally accepted
Angel RomeroAngel Romero1*Edgar Del CarpioEdgar Del Carpio2*Lino HernándezLino Hernández3Vito LubesVito Lubes3Francisco JourdanFrancisco Jourdan1Hugo CerecettoHugo Cerecetto1Gonzalo ScaleseGonzalo Scalese4Dinorah GambinoDinorah Gambino1*
  • 1Universidad de la República, Montevideo, Uruguay
  • 2Instituto de Zoología y Ecología Tropical, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad Central de Venezuela., Caracas, Venezuela
  • 3Simón Bolívar University, Caracas, Caracas, Venezuela
  • 4Pasteur Institute of Montevideo, Montevideo, Uruguay

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Quinoline moiety represents an important scaffold for the development of leishmanicidal agents. In particular, its hybridization with metal/metalloids has generated highly active compounds and, in some cases, highly selective against leishmaniasis models. The existing leishmanicidal metal-/metalloid-quinoline compounds are mainly based on: (i) coordination compounds based on 8hydroxyquinolinate, (ii) metallocene derivatives and, (iii) N-heterocyclic carbene (NHC) complexes featuring a quinoline moiety. This mini-review summarizes the reported cases of leishmanicidal metal and metalloid-based quinoline compounds for each group (i-iii), focusing on the structureproperty relationship from in vitro Leishmania models and mechanisms of action, in vivo experiment and pharmacokinetic data, if available. This paper aims to describe the state of the art of inorganic medicinal chemistry for the development of selective and potent leishmanicidal agents using the quinoline moiety.

Keywords: Quinoline, Leishmaina, Ferrocene, NHC (N-heterocyclic carbenes), 8-Quinolinate

Received: 01 Mar 2025; Accepted: 01 May 2025.

Copyright: © 2025 Romero, Del Carpio, Hernández, Lubes, Jourdan, Cerecetto, Scalese and Gambino. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

* Correspondence:
Angel Romero, Universidad de la República, Montevideo, Uruguay
Edgar Del Carpio, Instituto de Zoología y Ecología Tropical, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad Central de Venezuela., Caracas, 1050, Venezuela
Dinorah Gambino, Universidad de la República, Montevideo, Uruguay

Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

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