Azomethines, isoxazole, N-substituted pyrazoles and pyrimidine containing curcumin derivatives: Urease inhibition and molecular modeling studies

- Azomethines, Isoxazole, N-substituted pyrazoles and pyrimidine with curcumin scaffold were synthesized.
- Anti-urease studies of target compounds were performed.
- Molecular modeling of most active compounds at active site of urease.
- Thiourea conjugated with curcumin showed excellent urease inhibition with IC50 = 2.44 ± 0.07 μM.

Curcumin has shown large number of pharmacological properties against different phenotypes of various disease models. Different synthetic routes have been employed to develop its various derivatives for diverse biological functions. In this study, curcumin derived azomethine, isoxazole, pyrimidines and N-substituted pyrazoles were synthesized to investigate their urease enzyme inhibition. The structures of newly synthesized compounds were described by IR, MS, 1H NMR and 13C NMR spectral data. Urease enzyme inhibition was evaluated through in vitro assays in which compound 8b was found to be the most potent (IC50 = 2.44 ± 0.07 μM) among the tested compounds. The compounds with diazine ring system except the 4d showed better urease inhibition (IC50 = 11.43 ± 0.21-19.63 ± 0.28 μM) than the standard urease inhibitor thiourea (IC50 = 22.61 ± 0.23 μM). Similarly enzyme kinetics data revealed that compounds 3c-3e and 8b were competitive inhibitors with Ki values of 20.0, 19.87, 20.23 and 19.11 μM respectively while the compounds 4b, 4c and 4e were mixed type of inhibitors with Ki values 6.72, 19.69 and 6.72 μM respectively. Molecular docking studies were also performed to identify the plausible binding modes of the most active compounds.

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