Synthesis and antimicrobial activity evaluation of some new 7-substituted quinolin-8-ol derivatives: POM analyses, docking, and identification of antibacterial pharmacophore sites

Abstract

Eight new 7-substituted quinolin-8-ol derivatives were synthesized in moderate to good yields through quinolin-8-ol, and secondary amines as the starting reagents. The structures of the prepared compounds have been characterized by elemental analysis and 1H/13C NMR. The antimicrobial activity of this new series of heterocyclic compounds has been achieved "in vitro" against some bacterial strains by means of the disk method, and most of the tested compounds have shown comparable or greater antibacterial activity than nitroxoline (standard antibiotic). It was very motivating to observe that POM (Petra/Osiris/Molinspiration) bioinformatic analyses of compound 5 exhibited better antibacterial activity (MIC = 10 μg/mL against B. subtilis bacteria), and higher drug score (DS = 0.57) compared with Nitroxoline (DS = 0.47; MIC = 20 μg/mL). Molecular docking investigations were also conducted to investigate the binding affinities as well as interactions of some compounds with the target proteins.