Design, synthesis and biological activity of novel chalcone derivatives containing indole

In this study, 24 chalcone derivatives containing indole were designed and synthesized. Some of the target compounds exhibited significant antiviral and antibacterial effects. The results of EC50 test against tobacco mosaic virus showed that the EC50 value of curative activity of D11 was 107.4 mu g/mL, which was better than the commercial drug ningnanmycin 311.5 mu g/mL, and the EC50 value of protective activity of D16 was 106.6 mu g/mL, which was superior to ningnanmycin 205.4 mu g/mL, the inactivated activity of D11 was comparable to that of ningnanmycin. Microscale thermophoresis experiments demonstrated D11 (Kd = 0.0030 +/- 0.0014 mu mol/L) had a stronger binding ability with tobacco mosaic virus capsid protein (TMV-CP), which was much higher than that of ningnanmycin (Kd = 2.6062 +/- 1.1767 mu mol/L). Molecular docking results showed D11 had a significantly higher affinity with TMV protein than ningnanmycin. In addition, the malondialdehyde (MDA), peroxidase (POD), succinate dehydrogenase content (SDH) assay showed D11 could improve the disease resistance of tobacco. The results of bacterial inhibition activity showed that the EC50 value of D23 against Xoo was 50.3 mu g/mL, which was better than the commercial drugs thiodiazole copper (79.8 mu g/mL) and bismerthiazol (106.2 mu g/mL), the bacterial inhibition activity of D23 was verified by scanning electron microscopy. (c) 2023 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of King Saud University. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).