Síntese e avaliação de derivados benzisoxazolinônicos do eugenol como potenciais agentes antifúngicos

Abstract

The incidence of fungal infections caused by Candida spp. has increased considerably, especially in immunocompromised patients, who may present gravity. The most widely used antifungal agents in the treatment of these infections are amphotericin B and azole. However, resistence to drugs and severe side effects limit the success of therapeutics. For these reasons, there is an intensive search for new substances with antifungal activity, mainly those acting in new molecular targets. Ebselen, a seleno-organic compound is a good inhibitor of H+-ATPase, an essential and unique yeast enzime. On the other hand, eugenol is a natural product present in the essential oils of several plant species, especially in clove, is and it known for its various biological properties, including antifungal action, which also seems to be related to inhibition of this microbial ATPase. Likewise, of benzisoxazolinones, are heterocycles chemically similar to ebselen, but relatively little explored as bioactive compounds. In this context, we describe here the design and synthesis of benzisoxazolinones derived from eugenol (our related substances) and ebselen, planned according to molecular hybridization strategy. They were synthesized by classical synthetic procedures and the final step consisted cyclization in hydroxamic acids into benzisoxazolinone via Mitsunobu reaction. The final products were obtained with yields ranging from 5 to 70% and were characterized by standard spectroscopic methods. Next, the final products, and synthetic intermediates were evaluated for their in vitro antifungal activity against Candida spp. by microdilution tests. In addition, the most promising products were evaluated for their cytotoxicity profiles for determining the selectivity indexes. Tests have shown that all synthesized compounds have antifungal activity higher than eugenol. The N-phenylbenzisoxazolinones (18, 19 and 20) were the most promising ones showing in some instances IC50 values comparable oe equal to those of fluconazole against C. krusei and C. glabrata. Compound 19 showed an IC50 of 142 µM against C. krusei, very close to that achieved by fluconazole (104 µM) and was the only hybrid with fungicidal activity. Product 18, eugenol-ebselen hybrid, was the most active one against C. glabrata with an IC50 of 53 µM, good selectivity index (3.4) and potency equal to that of fluconazole (IC50 52 µM). These results highlight these derivatives as good compounds for structural optimization and further studies, as investigations on its molecular mechanism of antifungal action.