Synthesis, Biological Activity and Action Mechanism Study of Novel Chalcone Derivatives Containing Malonate

A series of novel chalcone malonate derivatives were synthesized and their antibacterial and antiviral activities were evaluated. All target compounds were characterized by spectral data. The results of antimicrobial bioassay showed that one compound (diethyl [3-(naphthalen-2-yl)-1-(3-nitrophenyl)-3-oxopropyl]propanedioate) showed excellent antibacterial activity against Xanthomonas oryzae pv. oryzae (Xoo), with an EC₅₀ value of 10.2 μg/mL, which is significantly superior to bismerthiazol (71.7 μg/mL) and thiodiazole copper (97.8 μg/mL). At the same time, the mechanism of two compounds was confirmed by scanning electron microscopy. In addition, another compound (diethyl [3-(naphthalen-2-yl)-1-(4-nitrophenyl)-3-oxopropyl]propanedioate) showed significant curative activity to tobacco mosaic virus, with a value of 74.3 %, which was superior to 53.3 % of ningnanmycin. The results of microscale thermophoresis also showed that the Kd value of the combination of two compounds with the coat protein of tobacco mosaic virus was 0.211 and 0.166 μmol/L, which was better than 0.596 μmol/L of ningnanmycin. At the same time, the molecular docking of two compounds with tobacco mosaic virus-coat protein shows that the compound is well embedded in the pocket between the two subunits of tobacco mosaic virus-coat protein. These results show that chalcone derivatives containing malonate group can be considered as activators in the design of antibacterial and antiviral agents.