Synthesis and biological evaluation of new 1,3-thiazolidine-4-one derivatives of nitro-l-arginine methyl ester

BACKGROUND: l-Arginine is a semi-essential aminoacid with important role in regulation of physiological processes in humans. It serves as precursor for the synthesis of proteins and is also substrate for different enzymes such as nitric oxide synthase. This amino-acid act as free radical scavenger, inhibits the activity of pro-oxidant enzymes and thus acts as an antioxidant and has also bactericidal effect against a broad spectrum of bacteria. RESULTS: New thiazolidine-4-one derivatives of nitro-l-arginine methyl ester (NO(2)-Arg-OMe) have been synthesized and biologically evaluated in terms of antioxidant and antibacterial/antifungal activity. The structures of the synthesized compounds were confirmed by (1)H, (13)C NMR, Mass and IR spectral data. The antioxidant potential was investigated using in vitro methods based on ferric/phosphomolybdenum reducing antioxidant power and DPPH/ABTS radical scavenging assay. The antibacterial effect was investigated against Gram positive (Staphylococcus aureus ATCC 25923, Sarcina lutea ATCC 9341) and Gram negative (Escherichia coli ATCC 25922, Pseudomonas aeruginosa ATCC 27853) bacterial strains. The antifungal activity was also investigated against Candida spp. (Candida albicans ATCC 10231, Candida glabrata ATCC MYA 2950, Candida parapsilosis ATCC 22019). CONCLUSIONS: Synthesized compounds showed a good antioxidant activity in comparison with the NO(2)-Arg-OMe. The antimicrobial results support the selectivity of tested compounds especially on P. aeruginosa as bacterial strain and C. parapsilosis as fungal strain. The most proper compounds were 6g (R = 3-OCH(3)) and 6h (R = 2-OCH(3)) which showed a high free radical (DPPH, ABTS) scavenging ability and 6j (R = 2-NO(2)) that was the most active on both bacterial and fungal strains and also it showed the highest ABTS radical scavenging ability. [Figure: see text]