Computationally guided synthesis and biological profiling of chalcones as antioxidant and anti-inflammatory...

Inflammation and oxidative stress are involved in the physiological changes associated with many chronic diseases, which has led to sustained interest in small molecules with pleiotropic properties. As part of this effort, this study reports the synthesis and evaluation of six chalcones. These six synthesized derivatives were produced using acetophenone and benzaldehyde, and structures were characterised through nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectral analysis and Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy. The compounds were tested for their in-vitro antioxidant properties using the DPPH free radical scavenging assay and anti-inflammatory and analgesic properties using an in-vivo model in rats and carrageenan-induced paw edema, heat-induced hyperalgesia, and mechanical allodynia.Computational finding by using AutoDockVina protocol against target enzyme (COX-II) (PDB: 3LN1), where the compounds 3B, 2B, and 1A exhibited strong binding affinities of - 9.8 kcal/mol, - 9.2 kcal/mol, and - 9.2 kcal/mol, respectively.Among these compounds, compound 3B exhibited the highest antioxidant activity, demonstrating an efficacy percentage of 78.34% and an IC₅₀ value of 7.86μg/ml. The chalcone derivatives were also assessed for their effectiveness in carrageenan-induced hyperalgesia, a model used to study pain response. Compound 1A significantly increased latency periods at 30, 60, 90, and 120 min compared to compounds 2B and 3B, suggesting its potential analgesic properties. Furthermore, compound 3B significantly reduced allodynia response at 120 min, indicating its potential to alleviate mechanical sensitivity.These findings suggest that chalcone derivatives, particularly 2B and 3B, hold strong potential as lead compounds for developing novel COX-2-targeted anti-inflammatory and antioxidant therapeutics. This study offers a comprehensive preclinical framework for chalcone-based drug discovery targeting inflammation and oxidative stress. This study emphasizes structure-dependent variations in chalcones, which present potential leads and are worthy of further exploration.