Design and synthesis of new benzylidene-quinazolinone hybrids as potential anti-diabetic agents: In vitro α-glucosidase inhibition, and docking studies

Abstract A novel series of benzylidene-quinazolinone hybrids 8a,b and 10a-n were designed, synthesized, and evaluated for their in vitro α-glucosidase inhibitory effect aiming to discover efficient anti-diabetic agents. The synthesized compounds were assessed for their in vivo anti-hyperglycemic activities against STZ-induced hyperglycemic rats. Five compounds (10m, 10f, 10c, 10d and 8b) demonstrated potent activities with percent reduction in blood glucose levels of 43.07, 40.14, 39.83, 37.04 and 36.16, respectively. The most active members were further evaluated in vitro for their α-glucosidase inhibitory binding affinities. Among them, Compound 10m containing 4-hydroxybenzylidene moiety and compound 10f with 4-chlorobenzylidene moiety connected to the acetohydrazide demonstrated the most potent inhibitory activities towards α-glucosidase with IC50 values of 561 and 610 µM, respectively. Molecular docking study was performed in order to understand the molecular interactions between the molecule and enzyme.