Glucoimines incorporating classical and non-classical carbonic anhydrase pharmacophores: Design, synthesis, conformational analysis, biological evaluation, and docking simulations

•Glucoimines incorporating classical and non-classical CA pharmacophores are described.•Conformational behavior of glucoimines has been studied in solution and the crystalline form.•Two potent inhibitors of tumor-associated carbonic anhydrases are found.•Docking simulations were used to understand binding modes in the active site. In this report, a series of glucoimines has been prepared by reaction of d-glucosamine and aromatic aldehydes incorporating classical and non-classical carbonic anhydrase pharmacophores. The conformational behavior of veratrole glucoimine was studied in solution and in crystalline form, by NMR and X-ray diffraction analysis, which revealed that pyranose ring adopted a 4C1 conformation. All glucoimines were tested against four isozymes of carbonic anhydrase: hCAs I and II (cytosolic, ubiquitous isozymes) and hCAs IX and XII (tumor-associated isozymes). In this study, per-O-acetylated and deprotected sulfonamide were identified as potent inhibitors of tumor-associated carbonic anhydrase isoforms. Molecular docking simulation was performed inside the active site of hCA II to evaluate the binding modes of veratrole and sulfonamide glucoimines. The last ones demonstrated the most favorable docking scores, indicating strong binding affinity towards hCAII in correlation with experimental inhibition activities. Interestingly, interaction analyses revealed distinct binding modes for ligand-hCAII complexes primarily due to the sulfonamide group. [Display omitted]