Design, synthesis and antiviral activities of chalcone derivatives containing pyrimidine

A series of chalcone derivatives (T1-T23) containing pyrimidine were synthesized, characterized, and assessed for their antiviral activity against tobacco mosaic virus (TMV) activities. Most target compounds displayed better antiviral activities against TMV than commercial ningnanmycin. Among them, the EC50 value of curative activities of compounds T1, T7, T9 and T19 (219.2, 228.2, 279.9 and 234.9 μg/mL, respectively) were superior to that of ningnanmycin (320.1 μg/mL). In addtion, the EC50 value of protective activities of compounds T5, T9, T19 and T23 (235.0, 220.0, 199.5 and 187.2 μg/mL, respectively) were superior to that of ningnanmycin (307.4 μg/mL). Then, the antiviral mechanism of T19 and TMV coat protein (TMV-CP) was preliminarily investigated by microscale thermophoresis (MST) and molecular docking technology. The results showed that T19 had a strong binding affinity for TMV coat protein, and its dissociation constant (Kd) was 0.00310 ± 0.000916 μM, which was superior to ningnanmycin(0.165 ± 0.0799 μM). This study suggests that chalcone derivatives containing pyrimidine could be used as novel antiviral agents for controlling the plant viruses.