Heba Elzahabi is a professor in pharmaceutical medicinal chemistry. She received her B. Sc. in 1993 from Cairo University, college of pharmacy, M. Sc. Degree on studying the anticonvulsant activity of some novel diphenic acid derivatives in 1998 from Al-Azhar University, college of pharmacy. She achieved her PhD study (2003) on investigating the anti-inflammatory, analgesic activity of novel quinoxalines. She achieved researches on new anticancer agents e.g. in-vitro study against enzymes involved in cancer, researches in organometallic chemistry to testifying the effect of metal chelation on the therapeutic action, with handling a full thermal analysis of organometallic compounds.
EDUCATION
Bachelor of pharmaceutical science
Master and PhD of pharmaceutical medicinal chemistry
MBA candidate
Entrepreneurial thoughts (Babson University)
Antibacterial and anticancer profiling of new benzocaine derivatives: Design, synthesis, and molecular mechanism of action Heba S. A. El‐Zahabi, Eman S. Nossier, Safya M. Mousa, Heba Hassan, AL Shimaa G. Shalaby, et al. Archiv Der Pharmazie, 2022 The need for new chemotherapeutics to overcome development of resistance merits research to discover new agents. Benzocaine derivatives are essential compounds in medicinal chemistry due to their various biological activities including antibacterial and anticancer activities. Therefore, this study focuses on the synthesis of new benzocaine derivatives 3a–e, 6, 7a and 7b, 8, 10–14, and 16a–d and their in vitro evaluation as antibacterial agents against gram +ve and –ve strains and as anticancer agents against HepG‐2, HCT‐116, and MCF‐7 human cancer cell lines. The obtained results demonstrated that thiazolidines 6 and 7b showed higher antibacterial and anticancer activity in comparison with the reference drugs. In addition, 6 and 7b showed high potency as inhibitors toward their biological targets, that is DNA gyrase and human topoisomerase IIα, as compared to the reference standard drugs novobiocin and etoposide, respectively. Molecular docking demonstrated that both compounds could identify the active site of their target enzymes and develop effective binding interactions. Absorption, distribution, metabolism and elimination (ADME) and drug‐likeness predictions of both compounds showed that they both have good ADME profiles and no structural alerts that might cause toxicity. Based on this, 6 and 7b could serve as lead compounds for the design of more potent antibacterial and anticancer agents.
Cytotoxicity, docking study of new fluorinated fused pyrimidine scaffold: Thermal and microwave irradiation synthesis Alaa M.A. Alnaja, Thoraya A. Farghaly, Heba S.A. El-zahabi, Mohamed R. Shaaban Medicinal Chemistry, 2021 Background: Azolopyrimidines are imposed on the arena of drugs treated for cancer. The urgent need to discover new selective anticancer agents, paved the way to explore the antitumor significance of such fused systems. From the synthetic point of view, Microwave facilitated technique for synthesis is very strongly associated with green method in chemistry field. Aim: Our aim is to synthesize bioactive compounds using docking simulation run by MOE program to explore the binding mode of the most active enzyme inhibitor among the target compounds. Method: In addition to the use of conventional heating, the MARS system of CEM utilized for Microwave irradiation that is equipped with a multi-mode platform with a magnetic stirring plate and a rotor that allows the parallel processing of many vessels per batch. All the synthesized compounds were tested for their anticancer activity against hepatic cancer (HepG-2), breast cancer (MCF-7) and colon cancer (HCT-116). Screening against the cancer cell lines was performed, using doxorubicin as a reference drug. Docking studies were conducted using MOE software. Result: A novel series of fluorinated fused-pyrimidine namely, pyrazolopyrimidine, triazolopyrimidine and pyrimidobenzimidazole were designed and synthesized conventionally and under microwave irradiations. The mechanistic pathways as well as the structure of all products were debated and demonstrated based on all possible spectral data. In-vitro examination of the novel prepared derivatives versus the three different human cancer cell lines [hepatic cancer (HepG-2), breast cancer (MCF-7) and colon cancer (HCT-116)] was evaluated to estimate their actual activity. Conclusion: We have developed a simple, facile, and efficient procedure for the formation of new series of azolopyrimidines. All spectra of all products were investigated deliberately to confirm their structures. The anti-cancer activity has been examined against three cancer cell lines e.g. HepG-2, MCF-7 and HCT116. Molecular modeling study was carried out in order to rationalize the in vitro anti-tumor results.
Novel thiobarbiturates as potent urease inhibitors with potential antibacterial activity: Design, synthesis, radiolabeling and biodistribution study Hanan Gaber Abdulwahab, Marwa F. Harras, Nagwan Galal El Menofy, Amany M. Hegab, Basma M. Essa, et al. Bioorganic and Medicinal Chemistry, 2020 Urease enzyme is a virulence factor that helps in colonization and maintenance of highly pathogenic bacteria in human. Hence, the inhibition of urease enzymes is well-established to be a promising approach for preventing deleterious effects of ureolytic bacterial infections. In this work, novel thiobarbiturate derivatives were synthesized and evaluated for their urease inhibitory activity. All tested compounds effectively inhibited the activity of urease enzyme. Compounds 1, 2a, 2b, 4 and 9 displayed remarkable anti-urease activity (IC50 = 8.21-16.95 μM) superior to that of thiourea reference standard (IC50 = 20.04 μM). Moreover, compounds 3a, 3g, 5 and 8 were equipotent to thiourea. Among the tested compounds, morpholine derivative 4 (IC50 = 8.21 µM) was the most potent one, showing 2.5 folds the activity of thiourea. In addition, the antibacterial activity of the synthesized compounds was estimated against both standard strains and clinical isolates of urease producing bacteria. Compound 4 explored the highest potency exceeding that of cephalexin reference drug. Moreover, biodistribution study using radiolabeling approach revealed a remarked uptake of 99mTc-compound 4 into infection induced in mice. Furthermore, a molecular docking analysis revealed proper orientation of title compounds into the urease active site rationalizing their potent anti-urease activity.
Utility of anthranilic acid and diethylacetylenedicarboxylate for the synthesis of nitrogenous organo/organometallic compounds as urease inhibitors Heba S. A. El‐Zahabi, Hanan G. Abdulwahab, Mastoura M. Edrees, Amany M. Hegab Archiv Der Pharmazie, 2019 Fumarate diester 3 was synthesized upon reacting anthranilic acid with diethylacetylenedicarboxylate. Compound 3 was reacted with different nucleophiles in mild reaction conditions. Selected reaction routes that afforded products 6, 9, 10, 11, and 12 were explained. The estimated mechanism for the reaction of 3 with ethylenediamine to afford 9 was proved by X‐ray single‐crystal and retro‐synthetic reaction. Acetyl anthranilic acid was utilized with zinc and copper to afford the organometallic compounds 14a and 14b, respectively. Three single crystals were afforded for 3, 9 and the organocopper complex 14b. Target compounds were screened for their inhibitory potential against urease enzyme. Most compounds were more potent than thiourea as standard inhibitor, considering that oxopiperazine 9 exhibited double the activity: IC50 = 8.16 ± 0.65 µM (thiourea IC50 = 20.04 ± 0.33 µM). Docking studies were in agreement with the in vitro enzyme assay.
Synthesis, Characterization, and Biological Evaluation of Some Novel Quinoxaline Derivatives as Antiviral Agents Heba S. A. El-Zahabi Archiv Der Pharmazie, 2017 Ethyl (6,7‐dimethyl‐2‐oxo‐3,4‐dihydroquinoxalin‐3‐yl)acetate and ethyl (6‐methyl‐2‐oxo‐3,4‐dihydroquinoxalin‐3‐yl)acetate (1a,b), 3‐methylquinoxalin‐2(1H)‐one (4) and 1,4‐dihydroquinoxaline‐2,3‐dione (11) were the starting precursors for nine novel quinoxaline compounds, 3a, 6, 10, 13, 15, 16, 17, 18, and 20, via adopting different nucleophilic reactions. The synthesized compounds were tested for their antiviral activity against HCV, HBV, HSV‐1, and HCMV. Concomitantly, their safety profile was investigated as well as their selectivity against the viral strains. The Virology Unit at the University of Alabama recorded that two compounds, i.e., 1a and 20, exhibited highly potent activity against HCMV with lower IC50 values (<0.05 μM) compared to ganciclovir (IC50 = 0.59 μM). Compounds 1a and 20 also exhibited low cytotoxicity together with a high selectivity index.
