In vivo anti-inflammatory activity and docking study of newly synthesized benzimidazole derivatives bearing oxadiazole and morpholine rings.

In search of potential therapeutics for inflammatory disease, we report herein the synthesis, characterization and anti-inflammatory activities of a new series of 1-{(5-substituted-1,3,4-oxadiazol-2-yl)methyl}-2-(morpholinomethyl)-1H-benzimidazoles (5a-r). The anti-inflammatory activity of the compounds was evaluated using carrageenan induced rat paw edema test. Some compounds showed excellent anti-inflammatory activity in carrageenan induced rat paw edema test. 1-{(5-(2-Chlorophenyl)-1,3,4-oxadiazol-2-yl)methyl}-2-(morpholinomethyl)-1H-benzimidazole (5g) showed maximum anti-inflammatory (74.17±1.28% inhibition) with reduced ulcerogenic and lipid peroxidation profile and also showed significant COX-2 inhibition with IC50 values of 8.00μM. Compounds 5o and 5q were also found to exhibit good COX-2 inhibition with IC50 values of 11.4 and 13.7μM concentrations. Molecular docking study showed that morpholine and oxadiazole rings linked to the benzimidazole nucleus play an important role in binding with the COX-2.