Shuyan Zhao1, Guishan Lin1, Wengui Duan1, Qianan Zhang1, Yinglan Huang1, Fuhou Lei2. 1. School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Guangxi University, No. 100, Daxue Dong Road, Nanning, Guangxi 530004, P. R. China. 2. Guangxi Key Laboratory of Chemistry and Engineering of Forest Products, Guangxi Collaborative Innovation Center for Chemistry and Engineering of Forest Products, Guangxi University for Nationalities, No. 188, Daxue Dong Road, Nanning, Guangxi 530006, China.
Abstract
Succinate dehydrogenase (SDH) present in the inner mitochondrial membrane is an important target enzyme for the design of SDH inhibitor-type fungicides. Using SDH as the target enzyme, 22 novel longifolene-derived diacylhydrazine compounds were designed and synthesized using the renewable natural product longifolene as the starting material. Their structures were confirmed by IR, 1H NMR, 13C NMR, electrospray mass spectrometry, and elemental analysis. In vitro antifungal activity of the target compounds was preliminarily evaluated. As a result, some of them showed better or comparable antifungal activity than that of the commercial fungicide chlorothalonil, in which compound 5a had inhibitory rates of 97.5, 80.5, 72.1, and 67.1% against Physalospora piricola, Colletotrichum orbiculare, Alternaria solani, and Gibberella zeae, respectively, presenting excellent and broad-spectrum activity that deserved further study. Besides, a reasonable and effective three-dimensional structure-activity quantitative relationship model has been established. There was a significant positive correlation between the antifungal activity and the docking-based binding energy analyzed using Spearman's rank correlation algorithm. Also, the simulative binding pattern of the target compounds with SDH was investigated by molecular docking study. Furthermore, the diacylhydrazine and phenol groups of the target compounds were proposed to be the potential pharmacophores by frontier molecular orbital analysis.
Succinate dehydrogenase (SDH) present in the inner mitochondrial membrane is an important target enzyme for the design of SDH inhibitor-type fungicides. Using SDH as the target enzyme, 22 novel longifolene-derived diacylhydrazine compounds were designed and synthesized using the renewable natural product longifolene as the starting material. Their structures were confirmed by IR, 1H NMR, 13C NMR, electrospray mass spectrometry, and elemental analysis. In vitro antifungal activity of the target compounds was preliminarily evaluated. As a result, some of them showed better or comparable antifungal activity than that of the commercial fungicide chlorothalonil, in which compound 5a had inhibitory rates of 97.5, 80.5, 72.1, and 67.1% against Physalospora piricola, Colletotrichum orbiculare, Alternaria solani, and Gibberella zeae, respectively, presenting excellent and broad-spectrum activity that deserved further study. Besides, a reasonable and effective three-dimensional structure-activity quantitative relationship model has been established. There was a significant positive correlation between the antifungal activity and the docking-based binding energy analyzed using Spearman's rank correlation algorithm. Also, the simulative binding pattern of the target compounds with SDH was investigated by molecular docking study. Furthermore, the diacylhydrazine and phenol groups of the target compounds were proposed to be the potential pharmacophores by frontier molecular orbital analysis.
The number of commercial
succinate dehydrogenase (or succinate-ubiquinone
oxidoreductase, EC 1.3.5.1) inhibitor (SDHI) fungicides has been increasing
in recent years because of their highly effective and broad-spectrum
fungicidal performance, which was owing to their unique action mode
with the target enzyme.[1] At present, about
20 SDHI fungicides have been registered according to the statistics
from the Fungicide Resistance Action Committee including carboxin,
fluxapyroxad, boscalid, benzovindiflupyr, bixafen, penflufen, and
so forth.[2] All of these compounds are carboxamides.
Meanwhile, fruitful research studies for discovering novel succinate
dehydrogenase (SDH) inhibitor molecules have been performed incessantly,[3−8] and some other pharmacophore-type compounds for SDHI fungicides
have been found such as carbohydrazides[9] and sulfonamides.[10]SDH is the
only enzyme involved in both the respiratory chain and
the tricarboxylic acid cycle. It catalyzes the oxidation of succinate
to fumarate, coupled with the reduction of ubiquinone to ubiquinol
in the inner mitochondrial membrane. It has been identified as a significant
target for the design of agrochemical fungicides.[11,12] The kinetics research of SDH inhibition through 10 commercial carboxamide
fungicides provided the useful reference for the design of new SDHI
fungicides. The result showed that the carboxamide molecule competed
with ubiquinone rather than succinate, and the carbonyl oxygen atom
of the carboxamide formed hydrogen bonds with two key amino acid residues
TRP and TYR, the acid moiety interacted with the residues ARG, SER,
IIE, and PRO, and the amine moiety interacted with the residues TRP,
IIE, and IIE.[13]We also noted that
diacylhydrazine compounds containing double
carboxamide groups exhibited diverse pharmacological properties, such
as insecticidal,[14] herbicidal,[15] antifungal,[16] antitumor,[17,18] and antimalarial[19] activities. Meanwhile,
compounds bearing a phenol pharmacophore comparable to ubiquinol showed
a wide range of biological activities, especially antifungal activity.[20−22]On the other hand, longifolene (4,8,8-trimethyl-9-methylenedecahydro-1,4-methanoazulene),
a naturally occurring tricyclic sesquiterpene, is the main constituent
of heavy turpentine, which is a byproduct in the production of rosin
and turpentine from living pine trees, but just used as a less expensive
boiler fuel.[23] By the isomerization–aromatization
reaction, longifolene can be converted into 7-isopropyl-1, 1-dimethyltetralin
(longifolene-derived tetraline),[24] whose
structural modification was explored to be used in perfume[25] or medicine[26] and
so forth. In light of these clues above and as the continuation of
our interest in the work of high value-added application of forest
resources for the sustainable development of the resin industy,[26−30] a series of novel longifolene-derived diacylhydrazine compounds
incorporating phenol and diacylhydrazine groups were designed by the
strategy of molecular docking-based virtual screening based on the
crystal structure of SDH (UniProtKB AC P32420, homology modeling on
SWISS-MODEL web) and synthesized and characterized. In vitro antifungal
activity of all the target compounds was preliminarily evaluated against
eight fungi. Furthermore, a three-dimensional structure–activity
quantitative relationship (3D-QSAR) model was built by the comparative
molecular field analysis (CoMFA) method, molecular docking was conducted
to explore the binding mode for these molecules with SDH, and the
frontier molecular orbital was calculated to analyze the potential
pharmacophore for the target molecules.
Results and Discussion
Synthesis
and Characterization of Compounds
The target
compounds were synthesized according to the route shown in Scheme . Longifolene-derived
tetralin 2 was prepared by the isomerization–aromatization
reaction using nanocrystalline sulfated zirconia as a catalyst and
further oxidized by TBHP oxidant to give longifolene-derived tetralone 3. Compound 2 and 3 were prepared
according to our previous report.[25] Compound 4 was prepared by the Baeyer–Villager oxidation reaction
using m-CPBA as the oxidant. 22 longifolene-derived
diacylhydrazine compounds 5a–5v were
then synthesized by the hydrazinolysis reaction of compound 4 with different substituted acylhydrazine compounds in 75.0–80.0%
yields.
Scheme 1
Synthetic Route of the Longifolene-Derived Diacylhydrazine
Compounds 5a–5v (Table )
Reagents and conditions:
(a)
ZnCl2, 140.0 °C, reflux 8 h; (b) TBHP, CH3CN, CuCl2, 40.0 °C; (c) m-CPBA,
Cl2Cl2, rt; and (d) EtOH, a series of different
acylhydrazine compounds, 78.0 °C.
Synthetic Route of the Longifolene-Derived Diacylhydrazine
Compounds 5a–5v (Table )
Reagents and conditions:
(a)
ZnCl2, 140.0 °C, reflux 8 h; (b) TBHP, CH3CN, CuCl2, 40.0 °C; (c) m-CPBA,
Cl2Cl2, rt; and (d) EtOH, a series of different
acylhydrazine compounds, 78.0 °C.The
structures of the target compounds were confirmed by IR, NMR,
electrospray mass spectrometry (ESI-MS), and elemental analysis. In
the IR spectra, the characteristic absorption bands at about 3438–3318
and 3289–3187 cm–1 were attributed to the
stretching vibrations of the O–H and N–H, respectively.
The characteristic absorption bands at about 1706–1661 cm–1 were assigned to the stretching vibrations of C=O.
The 1H NMR spectra exhibited characteristic signals at
δ 6.93–6.69 ppm, which were assigned to the protons of
the benzene ring, and the characteristic signals at about δ
10.21–8.88 ppm were assigned to the amino protons of the diacylhydrazine
moiety. The 13C NMR spectra of the target compounds showed
peaks for two carbon atoms of C=O at δ 173.94–163.23
ppm and carbon atoms of the benzene ring at δ 146.11–116.38
ppm. The other saturated carbons displayed signals in the region of
δ 37.60–24.81 ppm. Their molecular weights and the C,
H, and N elemental ratios agreed with the results of ESI-MS and elemental
analysis, respectively.
In Vitro Antifungal Activity
The
antifungal activities
of the target compounds 5a–5v were
evaluated by the agar dilution method[31] against eight plant pathogens at 50 mg/L, including apple root spot
(Physalospora piricola), wheat scab
(Gibberella zeae), speckle on peanut
(Cercospora arachidicola), tomato early
blight (Alternaria solani), fusarium
wilt on cucumber (Fusarium oxysporumf. sp.Cucumerinum), watermelon anthracnose (Colletotrichum orbiculare), corn southern leaf blight (Bipolaris maydis), and rice sheath blight (Rhizoctonia solani). The commercial fungicide chlorothalonil was used as a positive
control. The results are listed in Table . It was found that most of
the tested compounds displayed certain antifungal activity against
the tested fungi. Compared with that of the commercial fungicide (chlorothalonil),
some compounds exhibited excellent antifungal activity. For instance,
compound 5a (R = o-I Ph) had inhibitory
rates of 97.5, 80.5, 72.1, and 67.1% against P. piricola, C. orbiculare, A.
solani, and G. zeae, respectively, presenting better antifungal effect than that of
the positive control with inhibitory rates of 92.9, 75.0, 45.0, and
58.3%, respectively. Besides, compounds 5s (R = o-Cl Ph), 5j (R = o-NO2 Ph), 5d (R = p-OCH3 Ph), and 5g (R = p-F Ph) had inhibitory
rates of 97.5, 87.1, 80.8, and 80.8%, respectively, against P. piricola, 5h (R = o-F Ph) had an inhibitory rate of 70.8% against G.
zeae, 5k (R = o-Cl Ph)
had an inhibitory rate of 72.1% against A. solani, and 5b (R = 2,4-OH Ph) had an inhibitory rate of 73.5%
against R. solani, showing excellent
to moderate antifungal activity. Overall, compound 5a (R = o-I Ph) exhibited excellent and broad-spectrum
antifungal activity against most of the tested fungi. It was also
found that the R groups had a noticeable influence on activity, so
a 3D-QSAR study was performed subsequently.
Table 2
In Vitro Antifungal Activity of the
Target Compounds 5a–5v
relative inhibitory rate (%)
compounds
R
P. piricola
G. zeae
C. arachidicola
A. solani
F. oxysporum f. sp. Cucumerinum
C. orbiculare
B. maydis
R. solani
5a
o-I Ph
97.5
67.1
58.1
72.1
76.0
80.5
65.0
44.1
5b
2,4-OH Ph
70.4
52.9
69.3
68.6
44.0
41.8
40.0
73.5
5c
o-OH Ph
42.9
70.7
69.7
54.8
65.3
46.4
57.5
14.7
5d
p-OCH3 Ph
80.8
45.7
69.3
51.4
56.8
62.3
57.5
18.2
5e
o-Br Ph
74.6
56.4
61.9
58.3
67.4
55.5
60.0
0
5f
p-Br Ph
51.7
52.9
54.4
51.4
48.3
48.6
45.0
41.8
5g
p-F Ph
80.8
52.9
58.1
47.9
50.4
53.2
60.0
26.5
5h
o-F Ph
53.8
70.8
54.4
51.4
48.3
50.9
42.5
0
5i
o-CF3 Ph
51.3
70.7
61.9
54.8
65.3
41.8
60.0
22.9
5j
o-NO2 Ph
87.1
52.9
54.4
54.8
56.8
55.5
55.0
0
5k
o-Cl Ph
47.4
70.7
65.6
72.1
39.8
62.3
52.5
0
5l
m-Cl Ph
55.8
74.3
50.7
54.8
58.9
57.7
55.0
0
5m
p-Cl Ph
47.5
70.7
58.1
44.5
58.9
48.6
60.0
0
5n
p-CH3 Ph
76.3
38.6
39.6
47.9
56.8
50.9
50.0
31.2
5o
o-CH3 Ph
62.1
56.4
50.7
54.8
52.6
53.2
50.0
0
5p
p-CH2OH Ph
56.4
56.4
69.3
54.8
37.7
46.4
35.0
20.6
5q
p-C(CH3)3 Ph
32.9
70.7
61.9
51.4
35.5
30.5
32.5
0
5r
Ph
45.4
74.3
50.7
51.4
35.5
37.3
27.5
0
5s
CH3
97.5
60.0
58.1
61.7
44.0
46.4
32.5
0
5t
CH2 Ph
70.0
70.7
65.6
44.5
50.4
53.2
45.0
0
5u
CH2CN
46.7
60.0
50.7
61.7
50.4
44.1
40.0
0
5v
α-furyl
45.4
35.0
58.1
51.4
50.4
46.4
40.0
14.7
chlorothalonil
92.9
58.3
94.4
45.0
91.7
75.0
81.8
96.3
3D-QSAR Analysis
3D-QSAR analysis
of the experimental
and predicted antifungal activity against P. piricola for the target compounds was carried out by the CoMFA method according
to our previous report,[32] and the 16 target
compounds in the training set and the 2 target compounds in the test
set are presented in Table . The result is shown in Table . A 3D-QSAR model was established with the conventional
correlation r2 = 0.997 and the cross-validated
coefficient q2 = 0.574. Referring to the
report,[33] the inhibitory rate against P. piricola was converted to an active factor (AF).
The scatter plot of the predicted AF values versus experimental AF
values is presented in Figure , where all data were concentrated near the X = Y line, illustrating that the 3D-QSAR model was
reliable and had a good predictive ability.
Table 3
AF Values of Experimental and Predicted
Activities for the Target Compounds 5a–5ra
compounds
R
MW
AF
AF′
residual
5a
o-I Ph
494.11
–1.103
–1.148
0.045
5b
2,4-OH Ph
400.20
–2.226
–2.228
0.002
5c
o-OH Ph
384.20
–2.709
–2.725
0.016
5d
p-OCH3 Ph
398.22
–1.976
–1.987
0.011
5e
o-Br Ph
446.12
–2.182
–2.066
–0.116
5f
p-Br Ph
446.12
–2.620
–2.655
0.035
5g
p-F Ph
386.20
–1.963
–1.956
–0.007
5h
o-F Ph
386.20
–2.521
–2.509
–0.012
5i
o-CF3 Ph
436.20
–2.617
–2.615
–0.002
5j
o-NO2 Ph
413.20
–1.787
–1.800
0.013
5k
o-Cl Ph
402.17
–2.650
–2.709
0.059
5l
m-Cl Ph
402.17
–2.503
–2.505
0.002
5m
p-Cl Ph
402.17
–2.648
–2.626
–0.022
5n
p-CH3 Ph
382.23
–2.075
–2.076
–0.001
5o
o-CH3 Ph
382.23
–2.368
–2.358
–0.010
5p
p-CH2OH Ph
398.22
–2.488
–2.496
0.008
5q*
p-C(CH3)3 Ph
424.27
–2.937
–2.930
–0.007
5r*
Ph
368.21
–2.647
–2.622
–0.025
AF: experimental value; AF′:
predicted value; *: test set compounds.
Table 4
Summary of CoMFA
contribution (%)
q2
r2
S
F
steric
electrostatic
CoMFA
0.574
0.997
0.045
105.314
0.682
0.318
Figure 1
Scatter plot of predicted
AF values vs experimental AF values.
Scatter plot of predicted
AF values vs experimental AF values.AF: experimental value; AF′:
predicted value; *: test set compounds.The contribution rates for steric and electrostatic
fields were
68.2 and 31.8% (Table ), respectively, showing that the steric field was the major contributor
to the increase in activity. The steric and electrostatic field contour
maps for the R groups at the benzene ring are presented in Figure . The field contours
were represented with different colors: In the steric contour map,
the green enclosed volume represented that the R group embedding this
area will favor the increase in activity, while yellow defines the
opposite. In the electrostatic contour map, the blue enclosed volume
represented that the R group with an electropositive surface embedding
in this area will favor the increase in activity, while red defines
the opposite. As shown in Figure , a green block is suspended above the 2-position of
the benzene ring and a blue block is around the 4-position. Namely,
the introduction of R groups embedding the green enclosed volume will
favor the increase of activity, but cannot in the opposite. For example,
as shown in Figure a, compound 5a (R = o-I Ph), of which
the iodine atom can embed in the green block (Figure b), showed higher activity than compound 5k (R = o-Cl Ph), of which the chlorine atom
cannot embed in the green block (Figure c). Likewise, as shown in Figure d, compound 5d (R = p-OCH3 Ph), which had a methoxy group with an electropositive
surface located at the 4-position of the benzene ring (Figure e), showed better antifungal
activity than compound 5n (R = p-CH3 Ph, Figure f). Other compounds
shared a similar case.
Figure 2
Contours of CoMFA: (a) contour of the steric contribution
represented
in yellow and green, (b) expanded contour of compound 5a, (c) expanded contour of compound 5k, (d) contour of
electrostatic contribution represented in red and blue, (e) expanded
contour of compound 5d, and (f) expanded contour of compound 5n.
Contours of CoMFA: (a) contour of the steric contribution
represented
in yellow and green, (b) expanded contour of compound 5a, (c) expanded contour of compound 5k, (d) contour of
electrostatic contribution represented in red and blue, (e) expanded
contour of compound 5d, and (f) expanded contour of compound 5n.
Molecular Docking and Frontier
Molecular Orbital
The
molecular docking study for the target compounds was performed using
AutoDock 4.2.6 software[34] according to
our previous work.[26] The simulation of
the binding pattern for the best antifungal activity of compound 5a and commercial SDHI carboxin with SDH is shown in Figure . The oxygen atoms
of carbonyl and phenol moieties interacted with the residues TRP173
and HIS60 via the H bond (Figure a), which are similar to the commercial SDHI carboxin
(Figure b). Besides,
compound 5a was surrounded by the hydrophobic residues
HIS104, VAL59, and TYR58.
Figure 3
Binding mode and the interaction of (a) compound 5a with SDH and (b) commercial SDHI carboxin with SDH.
Binding mode and the interaction of (a) compound 5a with SDH and (b) commercial SDHI carboxin with SDH.In fact, some diacylhydrazine compounds were used
as commercial
pesticides such as tebufenozide, chromafenozide, and methoxyfenozide,
which were ecdysone receptor agonists. Therefore, molecular docking
investigation for the comparison between the target compound 5a and the commercial pesticide tebufenozide was carried out
using the heterodimer ecdysteroid receptor/ultraspiracle (EcR/USP)
as the target protein (PDB ID 1R20). The result is shown in Figure . As a whole, compound 5a embeds incompletely in the ligand (chromafenozide)-binding
domain (Figure a),
while the tebufenozide showed the opposite (Figure b), implying that compound 5a showed a potentially weak action with EcR/USP.
Figure 4
Binding mode and the
interaction of (a) compound 5a with EcR/USP and (b) tebufenozide
with EcR/USP.
Binding mode and the
interaction of (a) compound 5a with EcR/USP and (b) tebufenozide
with EcR/USP.Meanwhile, the correlation between
the binding energy and antifungal
activity was evaluated. There were 20 conformations docked for each
target compound (Figure ), and the lowest binding energy in the maximum cluster for the docked
conformations was chosen as the representative binding energy for
the corresponding compound. The scatter plot of AF values versus binding
energies for the title compounds is shown in Figure . All of the data were concentrated near
the line Y = 0.3066X – 0.8523,
illustrating that there was a clear positive monotonic association
between AF values and binding energies. In addition, Spearman’s
rank correlation coefficient analytical approach was carried out using
IBM SPSS STATITICS 22 software to investigate the correlation between
AF values and binding energies. The result is listed in Table . It was found that the correlation
was significant at 0.001 (at 0.01 level). The Spearman correlation
coefficient was 0.762, indicating that there was a significant positive
correlation, namely, the activity gradually increased with the increase
in binding energies.
Figure 5
Cluster of 20 docked conformations for compound 5a.
Figure 6
Monotonicity of AF values vs binding energies
for the target compounds.
Table 5
Spearman Rank Correlation Coefficient
of AF Values Versus Binding Energies for the Target Compounds
binding energy
AF values
binding energy
correlation
coefficient
1.000
0.762
Sig. (1-tailed)
0.001
AF values
correlation coefficient
0.762
1.000
Sig. (1-tailed)
0.001
Cluster of 20 docked conformations for compound 5a.Monotonicity of AF values vs binding energies
for the target compounds.According
to frontier molecular orbital theory, the highest occupied
molecular orbital (HOMO) and the lowest unoccupied molecular orbital
(LUMO) are the two important factors affecting the bioactivity of
compounds, because the HOMO has the priority to provide electrons,
while the LUMO easily accepts electrons. The group with frontier molecular
orbitals was a potential pharmacophore.[35] Therefore, the frontier molecular orbitals of compound 5s with good inhibitory activity were calculated using the mean of
the DFT/B3LYP method in the Gaussian 09 package.[36] The total energy of compound 5s was −998.65190379
a.u., and the energy gap between the HOMO and LUMO was 0.217 a.u.
The DFT-derived graphic results are presented using GaussView 5 software[37] in Figure . The HOMO is located on the phenol moiety and the
LUMO is located on the diacylhydrazine moiety, implying that these
moieties were potential pharmacophores for the contribution of bioactivity.
Figure 7
Optimized
conformer and the maps of HOMO and LUMO for compound 5s.
Optimized
conformer and the maps of HOMO and LUMO for compound 5s.
Conclusions
In
summary, 22 novel longifolene-derived diacylhydrazine compounds
were designed by molecular docking-based virtual screening based on
the crystal structure of SDH, synthesized using the renewable natural
forest product longifolene as the starting material, and confirmed
by IR, 1H NMR, 13C NMR, ESI-MS, and elemental
analysis. The evaluation of the in vitro antifungal activity for the
target compounds showed that some of them exhibited excellent inhibitory
activity against the tested fungi. Meanwhile, a reasonable and effective
3D-QSAR model has been established for the further study of these
types of compounds. There was a significant positive Spearman’s
rank correlation between the antifungal activity and the docking-based
binding energy. Molecular docking study revealed that there were H
bonds and hydrophobic interactions between diacylhydrazine compounds
and SDH. The distributed situation of the frontier molecular orbital
showed that the phenol and diacylhydrazine moieties were potential
pharmacophores for the contribution of bioactivity. Overall, compound 5a with excellent and broad-spectrum activity was the potential
SDHI leading compound worthy of further study.
Materials and Methods
The synthesized
compounds were characterized by IR (Nicolet IS 50 FT-IR spectrometer
using KBr tableting), 1H NMR and 13C NMR (Bruker
AVANCE III HD 600 MHz spectrometer using CDCl3 or dimethyl
sulfoxide as the solvent and TMS as an internal standard), ESI-MS
(TSQ Quantum Access MAX HPLC-MS apparatus), and elemental analysis
(PerkinElmer 2400II elemental analyzer). The melting points were measured
using a Hanon MP420 automatic melting point apparatus. All the characterization
data above can be found in the Supporting Information. Longifolene 1 was provided by Wuzhou Pine Chemicals
Co., Ltd., Wuzhou, China (65.0%, GC analyses). All other reagents
were purchased from commercial suppliers and used as received. Using
longifolene as the starting material, the longifolene-derived diacylhydrazine
target compounds were synthesized. The longifolene-derived tetraline 2 and the longifolene-derived tetralone 3 were
prepared according to our previously reported method.
General Procedure
for the Synthesis of Compound 4
Compound 3 (1.00 g, 9.25 mmol) and m-CPBA (3.19 g,
18.50 mmol) were mixed in CH2Cl2 (5 mL). The
mixture was continuously stirred at room
temperature. After the completion of the reaction, monitored by the
thin layer chromatography method, the resulting mixture was washed
three times with 5.0% NaHCO3 aqueous solution. The organic
layer was dried over anhydrous Na2SO4 and evaporated
in a vacuum. The residue was purified by silica gel column chromatography
(petroleum ether/EtOAc = 80:1, v/v) to give the colorless liquid compound 4.
General Procedure for the Synthesis of Longifolene-Derived
Diacylhydrazine
Compounds 5a–5v
Under stirring,
a solution of compound 4 (1.00 g, 4.31 mmol) in ethanol
(5 mL) was added dropwise into the solution (5 mL) of substituted
acylhydrazine compounds (12.93 mmol) in ethanol at 78.0 °C. After
the completion of the reaction, monitored by the thin layer chromatography
method, the reaction mixture was washed three times with 5.0% HCl
aqueous solution (10 mL each time). The aqueous phase was extracted
with Et2O. The combined organic phase was concentrated
under reduced pressure to obtain the crude product, which was purified
by silica gel column chromatography (petroleum ether/EtOAc = 5:1,
v/v) to afford the target compounds 5a–5v.
In Vitro Antifungal Activity Test by the Agar Dilution Method
This test procedure was carried out according to the reported method
and is described briefly as follows. Three copies of a culture plate
containing 50 μg/mL tested compound and plant pathogenic fungi
were cultured at 24.0 ± 1.0 °C for 48 h. Meanwhile, aseptic
distilled water was used as a blank control. There were three replicates
for each tested compound. The inhibition rate was calculated by comparing
the mycelium diameter of the fungi treated with the emulsion to the
blank control.The 3D-QSAR model
was built using
the CoMFA method of Sybyl-X 2.1.1 software. The structures of compounds 5a–5v were optimized based on the Tripos
force field and Gasteiger-Hückel charges. Compound 5a with the best activity was used as the template molecule and the
common skeleton atoms are marked with an asterisk, as shown in Figure . The 18 target compounds,
of which the R group contains the benzene ring, were superimposed
and the result is displayed in Figure . The inhibition rate against P. piricola was converted to the AF using the formula: AF = log{[relative inhibitory
rate/(100 – relative inhibitory rate)] × molecular weight}.
Figure 8
Common
skeleton atoms marked with an asterisk.
Figure 9
Superposition
mode for the 18 target compounds containing the benzene
ring on the R group.
Common
skeleton atoms marked with an asterisk.Superposition
mode for the 18 target compounds containing the benzene
ring on the R group.The built 3D-QSAR model
was checked by the partial least-squares
method. Its predictive capability was judged by a cross-validated
value squared (q2), a correlation coefficient
squared (r2), a standard deviation (S), and a Fisher validation value (F).
Molecular Docking and Frontier Molecular Orbital
The
molecular docking was carried out using AutoDock 4.2.6 software. The
PDB file of the target enzyme SDH–carboxin complex (UniProtKB
AC P32420, homology modeling) was downloaded from the SWISS-MODEL
web. The small molecules in the SDH–carboxin complex were removed.
A 60 × 60 × 60 point grid box around the Q-site was set
as the docking area. The docking parameters were searched using the
Lamarckian genetic algorithm (GA) and the number of GA runs was set
to 20 (namely, there were 20 conformations for each compound). The
lowest binding energy in the maximum cluster for the docked conformations
was chosen as the representative binding energy for the corresponding
compound.Moreover, the frontier molecular orbital for the target
compound 5s was calculated by the DFTB3LYP/6-31G (d,
p) method in the Gaussian 09 package on the Computer Supercomputing
Platform at Guangxi University, and the result was viewed using GaussView
5 software.
Authors: Helen A Seow; Philip G Penketh; Krishnamurthy Shyam; Sara Rockwell; Alan C Sartorelli Journal: Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A Date: 2005-06-17 Impact factor: 11.205
Authors: Rafael Mascoloti Spréa; Ângela Fernandes; Ricardo C Calhelha; Carla Pereira; Tânia C S P Pires; Maria José Alves; Cristiane Canan; Lillian Barros; Joana S Amaral; Isabel C F R Ferreira Journal: Food Funct Date: 2020-02-26 Impact factor: 5.396