Design, synthesis of antipyrine-based Schiff bases and investigation of their cholinesterase and carbonic anhydrase activities by in vitro and in silico approaches

In this study, a series of antipyrine-based Schiff bases (1–10) was designed, synthesized, and evaluated as potential inhibitors of various metabolic enzymes, including acetylcholinesterase (AChE), butyrylcholinesterase (BChE), and human erythrocyte carbonic anhydrase I and II (hCA I and hCA II). The target molecules were characterized by UV–vis, FT-IR, ¹H NMR, ¹³CNMR, LC-HRMS, and elemental analysis. All tested derivatives demonstrated low nanomolar inhibition with K_i values of in the range of 20.58 ± 0.35 to 53.11 ± 1.02 nM against AChE, 21.84 ± 0.40 to 54.41 ± 1.05 nM against BChE, 27.45 ± 0.41 to 48.22 ± 0.91 nM against cytosolic hCA I isoform associated with epilepsy, and 6.02 ± 0.11 to 29.32 ± 0.54 nM against cytosolic hCA II isoform associated with glaucoma. In general, most these molecules, except for a few, inhibited these enzymes more than acetazolamide (AZA) and neostigmine. Among them, compounds 5, 7, 8, and 9 showed the best inhibitory activities against AChE, BChE, hCA I, and hCA II, respectively. Docking results were calculated for the compounds that showed the best inhibitory activity against these enzymes and for reference compounds. Based on the molecular docking results, they were determined to have high binding energies, including hydrogen bonds, electrostatic interactions, and hydrophobic interactions. Absorption, distribution, metabolism, and excretion (ADME) parameters determined that all the synthesized pyrazolone ring-bearing Schif base derivatives (1–10) have the expected physicochemical properties in terms of drug-likeness and can be evaluated as orally active potential. Properties such as the electrophilicity index and chemical hardness were also investigated by density functional theory (DFT) at the B3LYP/6–311G** level of theory.