Synthesis, antimycobacterial screening and ligand-based molecular docking studies on novel pyrrole derivatives bearing pyrazoline, isoxazole and phenyl thiourea moieties

Abstract

We report here the synthesis, antibacterial and antitubercular evaluation of 61 novel pyrrolyl derivatives bearing pyrazoline, isoxazole and phenyl thiourea moieties. Molecular docking was carried out on enoyl ACP reductase from Mycobacterium tuberculsosis using Surflex-Dock, which is one of the key enzymes involved in type II fatty acid biosynthetic pathway of Mycobacterium tuberculosis, an attractive target for designing novel antitubercular agents. Docking analysis of the crystal structure of ENR performed using Surflex-Dock in Sybyl-X 2.0 software indicates the occupation of substituted pyrrolyl derivatives into hydrophobic pocket of InhA enzyme. Compounds 9b and 9d exhibited the highest antitubercular activity almost close to isoniazid (0.4 μg/mL) with a MIC value of 0.8 μg/mL. All other compounds showed the good activity with a MIC value of 6.25-100 μg/mL. The compounds were further tested for mammalian cell toxicity using human lung cancer cell-line (A549) and were nontoxic. Some compounds exhibited inhibition activities against InhA.

Keywords: Anti-tubercular activity; Cytotoxicity activity; Enzyme inhibition studies; Pyrrolyl chalcones; Pyrrolyl isoxazoles; Pyrrolyl pyrazolines; Surflex docking.