Synthesis and in-vitro anti-proliferative with antimicrobial activity of new coumarin containing heterocycles hybrids

A series of new coumarin-N-heterocyclic hybrids, coumarin-quinolines 7a-e, coumarin-acridines 10b,c and coumarin-neocryptolepines 13b,c were synthesized and evaluated for their anticancer and antimicrobial activities. The structures of all synthesized hybrids were confirmed by FT-IR, ¹H-NMR, ¹³C-NMR, and MS spectrometry. The anti-proliferative activity of hybrids 7a-e, 10c and 13c were bio-evaluated using MTT-assay against colon (CaCo-2), lung (A549), breast (MDA-MB-231), and hepatocellular carcinoma (HepG-2) human cancer cell lines using doxorubicin as a reference drug. The results demonstrated that, all hybrids displayed moderate to good anti-proliferative activity against the cell lines. The most active hybrids were 7a-d and 10c against CaCo-2 cancer cell line with IC₅₀: 57.1, 52.78, 57.29, 51.95 and 56.74 µM, and selectivity index 1.38, 1.76, 2.6, 1.96 and 0.77; respectively. While, 7a,d were potent against A549 cancer cell line with IC₅₀: 51.72, 54.8 µM and selectivity index 1.5, 0.67; respectively. Moreover, 7c showed the most potency against MDA-MB-231 cancer cell line with IC₅₀: 50.96 µM and selectivity index 2.20. Interestingly, docking results revealed that binding energy of the current compounds showed marked affinity values ranging from -6.54 to -5.56 kcal with interactions with the reported key amino acid SER 79. Furthermore, the antimicrobial activity of the synthesized hybrids 7a-e, 10b,c, 13b and 13c were evaluated against Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacterial and fungal strains. The hybrids 10b, 13b, 10c, and 13c exhibited broad-spectrum antibacterial activity against E.coli, S. mutans, and S. aureus with MIC from 3.2 to 66 µM, this hybrids also displayed antifungal activity against C. albicans with MIC values ranging from 0.0011 to 29.5 µM. In-silico investigation of the pharmacokinetic properties indicated that tested hybrids had high GI absorption, low Blood Brain Barrier (BBB) permeability in addition to cell membrane penetrability.