Nano-MoO3-mediated synthesis of bioactive thiazolidin-4-ones acting as anti-bacterial agents and their mode-of-action analysis using in silico target prediction, docking and similarity searchingElectronic supplementary information (ESI) available. See DOI: 10.1039/c5nj02729b

• Main Authors: Kumar, Keerthy Hosadurga, Paricharak, Shardul, Mohan, Chakrabhavi Dhananjaya, Bharathkumar, Hanumantharayappa, Nagabhushana, G. P, Rajashekar, Dinesh Koragere, Chandrappa, Gujjarahalli Thimmanna, Bender, Andreas, Basappa, Rangappa, Kanchugarakoppal Subbegowda
• Format: Journal Article
• Published: 07.03.2016
• ISSN: 1144-0546; 1369-9261
• DOI: 10.1039/c5nj02729b

The efficacy of thiazolidin-4-ones as synthons for diverse biological small molecules has given impetus to anti-bacterial studies. Our work aims to synthesize novel bioactive thiazolidin-4-ones using nano-MoO 3 for the first time. The compelling advantage of using nano-MoO 3 is that the recovered nano-MoO 3 can be reused thrice without considerable loss of its catalytic activity. The synthesized thiazolidin-4-ones were tested for anti-bacterial activity against two strains of pathogenic bacteria, namely, Salmonella typhi and Klebsiella pneumoniae . Our results indicated that 3-(benzo[ d ]isoxazol-3-yl)-2-(3-methoxyphenyl)thiazolidine-4-one (compound 3b ) showed significant inhibitory activity towards Salmonella typhi , in comparison with gentamicin. Furthermore, in silico target prediction presented the target of compound 3b as the FtsK motor domain of DNA translocase of Salmonella typhi . Hence, our hypothesis is that compound 3b may disrupt chromosomal segregation and thereby inhibit the division of Salmonella typhi . In addition, similarity searching showed that 34 compounds with a chemical similarity of 70% or higher to compound 3b , which were retrieved from ChEMBL, bound to targets associated with biological processes related to cell development in 36% of the cases. In summary, our work details novel usage of nano-MoO 3 for the synthesis of novel thiazolidin-4-ones possessing anti-bacterial activity, and presents a mode-of-action hypothesis. Thiazolidin-4-ones inhibit bacterial growth by potentially targeting the FtsK motor domain of DNA translocase of Salmonella typhi .