Synthesis and Study of Dibenzo[b, f]oxepine Combined with Fluoroazobenzenes—New Photoswitches for Application in Biological Systems

Dibenzo[b, f]oxepine derivatives are an important scaffold in natural, medicinal chemistry, and these derivatives occur in several medicinally relevant plants. Two dibenzo[b, f]oxepines were selected and connected with appropriate fluorine azobenzenes. In the next step, the geometry of E/Z isomers was analyzed using density functional theory (DFT) calculations. Then the energies of the HOMO and LUMO orbitals were calculated for the E/Z isomers to determine the HOMO-LUMO gap. Next, modeling of the interaction between the obtained isomers of the compounds and the colchicine α and β-tubulin binding site was performed. The investigated isomers interact with the colchicine binding site in tubulin with a part of the dibenzo[b, f]oxepine or in a part of the azo switch, or both at the same time. Based on the UV-VIS spectra, it was found that in the case of compounds with an azo bond in the meta position, the absorption bands n→π* for both geometric isomers and their separation from π→π* are visible. These derivatives therefore have the potential to be used in photopharmacology.