Synthesis, delivery, and molecular docking of fused quinolines as inhibitor of Hepatitis A virus 3C proteinase

It is widely accepted that Hepatitis A virus (HAV) is responsible for liver failure and even death in older people and in people with other serious health issues; so, proposing new compounds with inhibitory activity can help to treated of these disease’s. In current study, a new class of quinolines is proposed with inhibitor activity of the HAV proteinase. So, in the first step, fused quinoline derivatives has been synthesized in short reaction time (12.0 min) and high efficiency yields (94%) in presence of 1-carboxymethyl-2,3-dimethylimidazolium iodide ([cmdmim]I) ionic liquid catalyst using a new method. In the following, chemical reactivity and inhibitory activity of synthesized quinolines were evaluated in density functional theory (DFT) framework and molecular docking methodologies. High global softness (0.67 eV), low HOMO(SWBNNT)-LUMO(4a) gap (4.78 eV), and more negative adsorption energy (− 87.9 kJ mol(−1)) in these quinolines reveal that the 4a and 4b compounds have better delivery than other quinolines using SWBNNT as suitable carrier to target cells. Molecular docking shows that the best cavity of the HAV has − 134.2 kJ mol(−1) interaction energy involving bonding and non-bonding interactions. In fact, these interactions are between fused quinolines with especial geometries and sidechain flexibility amino acids residues inside the best binding site of the HAV, as hydrogen bonding, steric, and electrostatic interactions. So, these interactions imply that proposed fused quinolines have good inhibitor activity for the HAV.