Chemosensing Properties of Coumarin Derivatives: Promising Agents with Diverse Pharmacological Properties, Docking and DFT Investigation

In this work, a three-component reaction of 3-acetyl-4-hydroxycoumarine, malononitrile, or cyanoacetate in the presence of ammonium acetate was used to form coumarin derivatives. The chemical structures of new compounds were identified by (1)H, (13)C NMR and an elemental analysis. These compounds were examined in vitro for their antimicrobial activity against a panel of bacterial strains. In addition, these compounds were investigated for antioxidant activities by superoxideradical, DPPH (2,2-Diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl), and hydroxyl radical scavenging assays, in which most of them displayed significant antioxidant activities. Furthermore, these compounds were evaluated for anti-inflammatory activity by indirect hemolytic and lipoxygenase inhibition assays and revealed good activity. In addition, screening of the selected compounds 2–4 against colon carcinoma cell lines (HCT-116) and hepatocellular carcinoma cell lines (HepG-2) showed that that 2-amino-4-hydroxy-6-(4-hydroxy-2-oxo-2H-chromen-3-yl)nicotinonitrile 4 exhibited good cytotoxic activity against standard Vinblastine, while the other compounds exhibited moderate cytotoxic activity. Docking simulation showed that2-amino-4-hydroxy-6-(4-hydroxy-2-oxo-2H-chromen-3-yl)nicotinonitrile 4 is an effective inhibitor of the tumor protein HCT-116. A large fluorescence enhancement in a highly acidic medium was observed, and large fluorescence quenching by the addition of traces of Cu(2+) and Ni(2+) was also remarked.