Cinnamaldehyde-based hydrazone schiff bases as inhibitors of pepsin and trypsin: A comparative study

Selective targeting by a therapeutic agent is of significant importance in the development of a medicinally important compound. In the present work, we report preferential inhibition of pepsin by cinnamaldehyde-based hydrazone schiff bases over trypsin, keeping in view the significance of the development of protease inhibitors. The results revealed the significance of these hydrazone-hybrid molecules of cinnamaldehyde in inhibiting pepsin and trypsin at respective concentrations of 1 × 10⁻⁸ M and 1 × 10⁻⁷ M Compounds 2 and 7 demonstrated the highest inhibition, with approximately 79 % and 80 % at the respective concentrations for trypsin and pepsin. The respective IC₅₀ values were found to be 4.4 nM and 0.76 nM. The findings from the in vitro experiments were authenticated by in silico studies.