Docking and Antiherpetic Activity of 2-Aminobenzo[de]-isoquinoline-1,3-diones

As part of our search for new compounds having antiviral effects, the prepared 2-aminonaphthalimide series was examined for its activity against the herpes simplex viruses HSV-1 and HSV-2. This represents the first study of the antiviral effects of this class of compounds. The new series of 2-amino-1H-benzo[de]isoquinoline-1,3-diones was examined against HSV-1 and HSV-2 using a cytopathic effect inhibition assay. In terms of effective concentration (EC(50)), furaldehyde, thiophene aldehyde and allyl isothiocyanide derivatives 14‒16 showed potent activity against HSV-1 (EC(50) = 19.6, 16.2 and 17.8 μg/mL), compared to acyclovir as a reference drug (EC(50) = 1.8 μg/mL). Moreover, 14 and 15 were found to exhibit valuable activity against HSV-2. Many of the tested compounds demonstrated weak to moderate EC(50) values relative to their inactive parent compound (2-amino-1H-benzo[de]isoquinoline-1,3-dione), while compounds 7, 9, 13, 14, 15, 16, 21 and 22 were the most active set of antiviral compounds throughout this study. The cytotoxicity (CC(50)), EC(50), and the selectivity index (SI) values were determined. In a molecular docking study, the ligand-receptor interactions of compounds 1–24 and their parent with the HSV-1 thymidine kinase active site were investigated using the Molegro Virtual Docker (MVD) software. Based on the potent anti-HSV properties of the previous naphthalimide condensate products, further exploration of this series of 2-amino-1H-benzo[de]isoquinoline-1,3-diones is warranted.