Biochemical and Molecular Studies on the Role of Celecoxib and Some Related Bipyrazoles in Mitigating Induced Liver Injury in Experimental Animals.

Introduction: Liver fibrosis is a life-threatening disease that greatly impacts the morbidity and mortality of hepatic patients worldwide, resulting mainly as a consequence of hepatitis C, alcoholic and non-alcoholic fatty liver. COX-1 and COX-2 isozymes catalyze the synthesis of prostaglandins (PGs) and thromboxanes (TXs) from arachidonic acid causing inflammation. Owing to the scarcity of approved fibrolytic drugs available for human use, celecoxib (a selective COX-2 inhibitor) has been repurposed as a potential antifibrotic and fibrolytic agent in some chronic liver fibrosis models.

Methods: The present study aims to discover a non-invasive treatment for liver fibrosis through investigating the possible ability of three celecoxib-related bipyrazole compounds HR1-3 to reverse chemically induced liver fibrosis in rats using CCl₄. This fibrolytic effect was verified by histopathological, immunohistochemical, biochemical and biomolecular assays. In addition, in silico computer-aided evaluation of the compounds' binding mode to certain molecular targets was performed, and the in silico physicochemical properties, drug likeness and pharmacokinetic parameters were predicted using web-based applications.

Results: The analogs HR1-3 could serve as novel therapeutic candidates for the mitigation of liver fibrosis that deserves further derivatizations and investigations. In particular, the fluorinated analog HR3 proved to be the most active member in this study when compared to celecoxib due to its distinguished histopathological and immunohistochemical investigation results, beside its antioxidant potential, as well as its reliable effects against some biomarkers, namely, MMP-9, TGF-β1, TIMP-1, IL-6 and TNF-α.

Conclusion: Based on the obtained results, the fluorinated analog HR3 could serve as a novel therapeutic candidate for the amelioration of liver fibrosis that deserves further derivatizations and investigations.