Naringenin derivatives as glucosamine-6-phosphate synthase inhibitors: synthesis, antioxidants, antimicrobial, preservative efficacy, molecular docking and in silico ADMET analysis

BACKGROUND: Preservatives have to be added in food, pharmaceuticals and cosmetics products to maintain their shelf life. However, the existing chemical based preservatives have been associated with severe side effects that compel the researchers to find better safe preservatives based on natural products. G-6-P synthase is an important enzyme for bacterial and fungal cell wall synthesis and offers as a potential target to find better G-6-P synthase inhibitors based antimicrobial compounds. Naringenin, a flavanone, has been reported for a wide range of pharmacological activities including antimicrobial activity, which makes it a potential candidate to be explored as novel G-6-P synthase inhibitor. RESULTS: The synthesis of naringenin derivatives with potent G-6-P synthase inhibitor having remarkable antioxidant, antimicrobial and preservative efficacy was performed. Among the synthesized compounds, the compound 1 possessed good antioxidant activity (IC(50) value, 6.864 ± 0.020 µM) as compared to standard ascorbic acid (IC(50) value, 8.110 ± 0.069 µM). The antimicrobial activity of synthesized compounds revealed compound 1 as the most potent compound (pMIC 1.79, 1.79, 1.49, 1.49, 1.49 and 1.49 μM/mL for P. mirabilis, P. aeruginosa, S. aureus, E. coli, C. albicans and A. niger respectively) as compared to standard drugs taken. The compound 2 showed comparable activity against P. mirabilis (pMIC 1.14 μM/mL), C. albicans (pMIC 1.14 μM/mL) while the compound 3 also showed comparable activity against C. albicans (pMIC 1.16 μM/mL) as well A. niger (pMIC 1.46 μM/mL), likewise the compound 4 showed comparable activity against P. mirabilis (pMIC 1.18 μM/mL) as compared to the standard drugs streptomycin (pMIC 1.06, 1.36, 1.06 and 1.96 μM/mL for P. mirabilis, P. aeruginosa, S. aureus and E. coli respectively), ciprofloxacin (pMIC 1.12, 1.42, 1.12 and 1.42 μM/mL for P. mirabilis, P. aeruginosa, S. aureus and E. coli respectively), ampicillin (pMIC 1.14, 0.84, 0.84 and 1.74 μM/mL for P. mirabilis, P. aeruginosa, S. aureus and E. coli respectively) and fluconazole (pMIC 1.08 and 1.38 μM/mL for C. albicans and A. niger respectively). The molecular docking with the target G-6-P synthase pdb id 1moq resulted with an better dock score for compound 1 (− 7.42) as compared to standard antimicrobial drugs, ciprofloxacin (− 5.185), ampicillin (− 5.065) and fluconazole (− 5.129) that supported the wet lab results. The preservative efficacy test for compound 1 in White Lotion USP showed the log CFU/mL value within the prescribed limit and results were comparable to standard sodium benzoate, ethyl paraben and propyl paraben as per USP standard protocol. CONCLUSIONS: The synthesized naringenin derivatives exhibited significant G-6-P synthase inhibitory potential with good selectivity towards the selected target G-6-P synthase. Compound 1, bearing nitro group showed good antioxidant, antimicrobial and preservative efficacy compared with the standard drugs taken. The mechanistic insight about the compounds within the active site was completed by molecular docking that supported the results for novel synthesized G-6-P synthase inhibitors. [Image: see text]