Advances in Phenazines over the Past Decade: Review of Their Pharmacological Activities, Mechanisms of Action, Biosynthetic Pathways and Synthetic Strategies
Junjie Yan,
Weiwei Liu,
Jiatong Cai,
Yiming Wang,
Dahong Li,
Huiming Hua,
Hao Cao
Affiliations
Junjie Yan
Key Laboratory of Structure-Based Drug Design & Discovery, Ministry of Education, School of Traditional Chinese Materia Medica, Shenyang Pharmaceutical University, Shenyang 110016, China
Weiwei Liu
Wuya College of Innovation, Shenyang Pharmaceutical University, Shenyang 110016, China
Jiatong Cai
Key Laboratory of Structure-Based Drug Design & Discovery, Ministry of Education, School of Traditional Chinese Materia Medica, Shenyang Pharmaceutical University, Shenyang 110016, China
Yiming Wang
Key Laboratory of Structure-Based Drug Design & Discovery, Ministry of Education, School of Traditional Chinese Materia Medica, Shenyang Pharmaceutical University, Shenyang 110016, China
Dahong Li
Key Laboratory of Structure-Based Drug Design & Discovery, Ministry of Education, School of Traditional Chinese Materia Medica, Shenyang Pharmaceutical University, Shenyang 110016, China
Huiming Hua
Key Laboratory of Structure-Based Drug Design & Discovery, Ministry of Education, School of Traditional Chinese Materia Medica, Shenyang Pharmaceutical University, Shenyang 110016, China
Hao Cao
Key Laboratory of Structure-Based Drug Design & Discovery, Ministry of Education, School of Traditional Chinese Materia Medica, Shenyang Pharmaceutical University, Shenyang 110016, China
Phenazines are a large group of nitrogen-containing heterocycles, providing diverse chemical structures and various biological activities. Natural phenazines are mainly isolated from marine and terrestrial microorganisms. So far, more than 100 different natural compounds and over 6000 synthetic derivatives have been found and investigated. Many phenazines show great pharmacological activity in various fields, such as antimicrobial, antiparasitic, neuroprotective, insecticidal, anti-inflammatory and anticancer activity. Researchers continued to investigate these compounds and hope to develop them as medicines. Cimmino et al. published a significant review about anticancer activity of phenazines, containing articles from 2000 to 2011. Here, we mainly summarize articles from 2012 to 2021. According to sources of compounds, phenazines were categorized into natural phenazines and synthetic phenazine derivatives in this review. Their pharmacological activities, mechanisms of action, biosynthetic pathways and synthetic strategies were summarized. These may provide guidance for the investigation on phenazines in the future.
