Fe–SBA-15 catalyzed synthesis of 2-alkoxyimidazo[1,2-a]pyridines and screening of their in silico selectivity and binding affinity to biological targets

Here, we have demonstrated regioselective three-component synthesis of 2-alkoxyimidazopyridines using mesoporous Fe–SBA-15 as the catalyst and screened their in silico selectivity and binding affinity to different biological targets viz. farnesyl diphosphate synthase, phosphodiesterase III, GABAa and chemokine receptor CXCR4 using molecular docking simulations. Fe–SBA-15 has been characterized by nitrogen absorption–desorption, powder XRD, SEM, TEM studies and atomic absorption spectroscopic analysis. Fe–SBA-15 was very efficient in synthesizing imidazopyridines. The binding affinity study revealed that the 2-butoxy-3-(4-methoxyphenyl)-7-methylH-imidazo[1,2-a] pyridine (4g) moiety has exhibited even better affinity in terms of MolDock, re-rank and steric scores than the marketed anti-inflammatory drug, olprinone.