Synthesis and Biological Evaluation of 2H-Indazole Derivatives: Towards Antimicrobial and Anti-Inflammatory Dual Agents

Indazole is considered a very important scaffold in medicinal chemistry. It is commonly found in compounds with diverse biological activities, e.g., antimicrobial and anti-inflammatory agents. Considering that infectious diseases are associated to an inflammatory response, we designed a set of 2 -indazole derivatives by hybridization of cyclic systems commonly found in antimicrobial and anti-inflammatory compounds. The derivatives were synthesized and tested against selected intestinal and vaginal pathogens, including the protozoa , , and ; the bacteria and serovar Typhi; and the yeasts and . Biological evaluations revealed that synthesized compounds have antiprotozoal activity and, in most cases, are more potent than the reference drug metronidazole, e.g., compound is 12.8 times more active than metronidazole against . Furthermore, two 2,3-diphenyl-2 -indazole derivatives ( and ) showed in vitro growth inhibition against and . In addition to their antimicrobial activity, the anti-inflammatory potential for selected compounds was evaluated in silico and in vitro against human cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2). The results showed that compounds , , , and display in vitro inhibitory activity against COX-2, whereas docking calculations suggest a similar binding mode as compared to rofecoxib, the crystallographic reference.