Phenolic Schiff bases are known as powerful antioxidants. To select the electronic, 2D and 3D descriptors responsible for the free radical scavenging ability of a series of 30 phenolic Schiff bases, a set of molecular descriptors were calculated by using B3P86 (Becke's three parameter hybrid functional with Perdew 86 correlation functional) combined with 6-31 + G(d,p) basis set (i.e., at the B3P86/6-31 + G(d,p) level of theory). The chemometric methods, simple and multiple linear regressions (SLR and MLR), principal component analysis (PCA) and hierarchical cluster analysis (HCA) were employed to reduce the dimensionality and to investigate the relationship between the calculated descriptors and the antioxidant activity. The results showed that the antioxidant activity mainly depends on the first and second bond dissociation enthalpies of phenolic hydroxyl groups, the dipole moment and the hydrophobicity descriptors. The antioxidant activity is inversely proportional to the main descriptors. The selected descriptors discriminate the Schiff bases into active and inactive antioxidants.
Natural styrylpyrones isolated from fungi are known for various biological activities including antioxidant activity by scavenging free radicals. UV/vis spectra play an important role in elucidating chemical structures of these compounds via identification of chromophore units. With the aim of predicting the UV/vis spectra of a series of natural styrylpyrones, we tested TD-DFT, CIS and ZINDO methods in gas and in PCM solvent. The results showed that the individual or combined B3P86 and B3LYP hybrid functionals are suitable to predict the maximum wavelength absorption bands (λmax) for styrylpyrones. The structure property relationship (SPR) study emphasized the role of (i) structural parameters (e.g., hydrogen bond and the length of conjugated double bonds) and (ii) electronic descriptors (e.g., ionization potential, electronic affinity, hardness and electrophilicity) in bathochromic and hypsochromic shifts of maximum wavelength absorption bands (λmax) of styrylpyrone derivatives.
A new isomers of thiourea derivatives, namely N-(4-chlorobutanoyl)-N'-(2-methylphenyl)-thiourea (1a), N-(4-chlorobutanoyl)-N'-(3-methylphenyl)thiourea (1b) and N-(4-chlorobutanoyl)-N'-(4-methylphenyl)thiourea (1c) have been synthesized by refluxing mixture of equimolar amounts of 4-chlorobutanoylisothiocyanate with 2, 3 or 4-toluidine, respectively. The three isomers were characterized by spectroscopic (UV/vis, FT-IR and NMR) and X-ray crystallography techniques. To investigate the isomerization effect on spectroscopic data, DFT and TD-DFT calculations have been carried out using five hybrid functionals (B3LYP, B3P86, CAM-B3LYP, M06-2X and PBE0) to predict UV/vis absorption bands (n→π∗ and π→π∗), (1)H and (13)C NMR chemical shifts, FT-IR vibration modes and X-ray parameters (bonds, bond angles and torsion angles) for 1a, 1b and 1c isomers. The results showed that the isomerization effect is significant on λ(MAX) absorption bands, while for IR and NMR the effect is negligible. In accordance with previous studies, B3LYP, B3P86 and PBE0 gave the most reliable to predict the excitation energies of thiourea derivatives.
Root decoctions of anthraquinone-containing plants are often taken as postpartum tonic and aphrodisiac. Anthraquinones are known for their diverse biological activities, especially antioxidant and anticancer. A series of 35 anthraquinones was generated by isolation from Rubiaceae plants and synthesis. Their UV/vis spectrum depends on the nature and relative positions of auxochromic substituents on the basic skeleton. To predict the maximum absorption bands for the current series of anthraquinones, excited sate calculations were performed using TD-DFT, CIS, ZINDO methods. The results showed that the use of PBE0 or its combination with B3LYP and B3P86 hybrid functionals are the most suitable to reproduce accurately the experimental λMAX. The structure-property relationships (SPRs) were established based on structural and electronic properties of the anthraquinones and showed (i) the importance of the number and position of OH groups and (ii) the positive contribution of the electrophilicity and hardness as electronic descriptors on position and amplitude of the maximum absorption bands.
A natural pentacyclic triterpenoid oleanolic acid 1 and its biotransformed metabolites 2-3 are potential α-glucosidase inhibitors. To elucidate the inhibitory mechanism of compounds 1, 2 and 3 against α-glucosidase, we calculated (i) their electronic and optical properties using DFT and TD-DFT at the B3LYP/6-31G(d) level in gas and IEF-PCM solvent; and (ii) their binding energies to α-glucosidase via docking study. DFT results showed that the α-glucosidase inhibtion is mainly depend on the polarity parameters of the studied compounds. Docking results revealed that the activity increased with binding energies (i.e. the stability of ligand-receptor complex). The specroscopic data of oleanolic acid 1 and its metabolites 2 and 3 are well predicetd for 13C NMR chemical shifts (R2=99%) and 1H NMR chemical shifts (R2=90%); and for (ii) UV/vis spectra. The assignments and interpretation of NMR chemical shifts and bathochromic shift of λMAX absorption bands are discussed.
Curcumenol and curcumenone are two major constituents of the plants of medicinally important genus of Curcuma, and often govern the pharmacological effect of these plant extracts. These two compounds, isolated from C. zedoaria rhizomes were studied for their binding to human serum albumin (HSA) using the fluorescence quench titration method. Molecular docking was also performed to get a more detailed insight into their interaction with HSA at the binding site. Additions of these sesquiterpenes to HSA produced significant fluorescence quenching and blue shifts in the emission spectra of HSA. Analysis of the fluorescence data pointed toward moderate binding affinity between the ligands and HSA, with curcumenone showing a relatively higher binding constant (2.46 × 105 M-1) in comparison to curcumenol (1.97 × 104 M-1). Cluster analyses revealed that site I is the preferred binding site for both molecules with a minimum binding energy of -6.77 kcal·mol-1. However, binding of these two molecules to site II cannot be ruled out as the binding energies were found to be -5.72 and -5.74 kcal·mol-1 for curcumenol and curcumenone, respectively. The interactions of both ligands with HSA involved hydrophobic interactions as well as hydrogen bonding.
The anti-inflammatory drug predinisolone (1) was reduced to 20β-hydroxyprednisolone (2) by the marine endophytic fungus Penicilium lapidosum isolated from an alga. The structural elucidation of 2 was achieved by 1D- and 2D-NMR, MS, IR data. Although, 2 is a known compound previously obtained through microbial transformation, the data provided failed to prove the C20 stereochemistry. To solve this issue, DFT and TD-DFT calculations have been carried out at the B3LYP/6-31+G (d,p) level of theory in gas and solvent phase. The absolute configuration of C20 was eventually assigned by combining experimental and calculated electronic circular dichroism spectra and 3JHH chemical coupling constants.
Schiff bases of 3,4-dimethoxybenzenamine 1-25 were synthesized and evaluated for their antioxidant activity. All the synthesized compounds were characterized by various spectroscopic techniques. In addition, the characterizations of compounds 13, 15 and 16 were supported by crystal X-ray determinations and their geometrical parameters were compared with theoretical DFT calculations at the B3LYP level of theory. Furthermore, the X-ray crystal data of two non-crystalline compounds 8 and 18 were theoretically calculated and compared with the practical values of compounds 13, 15, 16 and found a good agreement. The compounds showed good DPPH scavenging activity ranging from 10.12 to 84.34 μM where compounds 1-4 and 6 showed stronger activity than the standard n-propyl gallate. For the superoxide anion radical assay, compounds 1-3 showed better activity than the standard.
4-Methylbenzimidazole 1-28 novel derivatives were synthesized and evaluated for their antiglycation and antioxidant activities. Compounds 1-7 and 11 showed excellent activities ranged 140-280 μM, better than standard drug rutin (294.46 ± 1.50 μM). Compound 1-28 were also evaluated for DPPH activities. Compounds 1-8 showed excellent activities, ranging 12-29 μM, better than standard drug n-propylgallate (IC50 = 30.30 ± 0.40 μM). For superoxide anion scavenging activity, compounds 1-7 showed better activity than standard n-propylgallate (IC50 = 106.34 ± 1.6 μM), ranged 82-104 μM. These compounds were found to be nontoxic to THP-1 cells.
Phenolic Schiff bases are known for their diverse biological activities and ability to scavenge free radicals. To elucidate (1) the structure-antioxidant activity relationship of a series of thirty synthetic derivatives of 2-methoxybezohydrazide phenolic Schiff bases and (2) to determine the major mechanism involved in free radical scavenging, we used density functional theory calculations (B3P86/6-31+(d,p)) within polarizable continuum model. The results showed the importance of the bond dissociation enthalpies (BDEs) related to the first and second (BDEd) hydrogen atom transfer (intrinsic parameters) for rationalizing the antioxidant activity. In addition to the number of OH groups, the presence of a bromine substituent plays an interesting role in modulating the antioxidant activity. Theoretical thermodynamic and kinetic studies demonstrated that the free radical scavenging by these Schiff bases mainly proceeds through proton-coupled electron transfer rather than sequential proton loss electron transfer, the latter mechanism being only feasible at relatively high pH.
2-Indolcarbohydrazones 1-28 were synthesized and evaluated for their α-glucosidase inhibitory potential. A varying degree of inhibitory potential with IC50 values in the range of 2.3±0.11-226.4±6.8μM was observed while comparing these outcomes with the standard acarbose (IC50=906.0±6.3μM). The stereochemistry of ten (10) randomly selected compounds (1, 3, 6, 8, 12, 18, 19, 23, 25 and 28) was predicted by Density Functional Theory (DFT). The stability of E isomer was deduced by comparing the calculated and experimental vibration modes of νCO, νNC and νCH (CH in NCH-R). It was observed that except compound 18, all other compounds were deduced to have E configuration while molecular modeling studies revealed the key interactions between enzyme and synthesized compounds.
A series of 21 compounds isolated from Curcuma zedoaria was subjected to cytotoxicity test against MCF7; Ca Ski; PC3 and HT-29 cancer cell lines; and a normal HUVEC cell line. To rationalize the structure-activity relationships of the isolated compounds; a set of electronic; steric and hydrophobic descriptors were calculated using density functional theory (DFT) method. Statistical analyses were carried out using simple and multiple linear regressions (SLR; MLR); principal component analysis (PCA); and hierarchical cluster analysis (HCA). SLR analyses showed that the cytotoxicity of the isolated compounds against a given cell line depend on certain descriptors; and the corresponding correlation coefficients (R2) vary from 0%-55%. MLR results revealed that the best models can be achieved with a limited number of specific descriptors applicable for compounds having a similar basic skeleton. Based on PCA; HCA and MLR analyses; active compounds were classified into subgroups; which was in agreement with the cell based cytotoxicity assay.