Synthesis, characterization, biological evaluation, and docking simulation of chalcone derivatives as potent antibacterial agents

Synthesis and antibacterial activity assay of hydroxychalcone derivatives have been conducted followed by the in-silico study to predict the interaction between the compounds with the crystal protein of Staphylococcus aureus (2X3F.pdb) and Escherichia coli (1JKJ.pdb). Two chalcone derivatives were prepared via condensation reaction of benzaldehyde derivatives and 2-hydroxy acetophenone under Microwave irradiation. The structures of the prepared chalcones (1 and 2) were elucidated by mass and NMR spectroscopy. An in vitro antibacterial activity was determined against S. aureus and E. coli through the disk diffusion method with chloramphenicol as a positive control. Chalcone 1 was found to have better antibacterial activity than chalcone 2 toward both S. aureus and E. coli according to the inhibition zone diameter (mm) from all the tested concentrations (20, 40, 60, and 80%). The in-silico study supported the in vitro result by showing lower CDOCKER energy for chalcone 1 with -37.0090 and -34.0850 kcal/mol for 2X3F.pdb and 1JKJ.pdb respectively. Furthermore, chalcone 1 has displayed four hydrogen bonds to the important amino acid residues Lys185, Lys150, His38, and Gln62 of S. aureus (2X3F) and five hydrogen bonds to the Tyr71, Gly20, and Gln19 of E. coli (1JKJ).