5-chloro-3-(2-(2,4-dinitrophenyl) hydrazono)indolin-2-one: synthesis, characterization, biochemical and computational screening against SARS-CoV-2.

Chemical prototypes with broad-spectrum antiviral activity are important toward developing new therapies that can act on both existing and emerging viruses. Binding of the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein to the host angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) receptor is required for cellular entry of SARS-CoV-2. Toward identifying new chemical leads that can disrupt this interaction, including in the presence of SARS-CoV-2 adaptive mutations found in variants like omicron that can circumvent vaccine, immune, and therapeutic antibody responses, we synthesized 5-chloro-3-(2-(2,4-dinitrophenyl)hydrazono)indolin-2-one (H ₂ L) from the condensation reaction of 5-chloroisatin and 2,4-dinitrophenylhydrazine in good yield. H ₂ L was characterised by elemental and spectral (IR, electronic, Mass) analyses. The NMR spectrum of H ₂ L indicated a keto-enol tautomerism, with the keto form being more abundant in solution. H ₂ L was found to selectively interfere with binding of the SARS-CoV-2 spike receptor-binding domain (RBD) to the host angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 receptor with a 50% inhibitory concentration (IC ₅₀ ) of 0.26 μM, compared to an unrelated PD-1/PD-L1 ligand-receptor-binding pair with an IC ₅₀ of 2.06 μM in vitro (Selectivity index = 7.9). Molecular docking studies revealed that the synthesized ligand preferentially binds within the ACE2 receptor-binding site in a region distinct from where spike mutations in SARS-CoV-2 variants occur. Consistent with these models, H ₂ L was able to disrupt ACE2 interactions with the RBDs from beta, delta, lambda, and omicron variants with similar activities. These studies indicate that H ₂ L-derived compounds are potential inhibitors of multiple SARS-CoV-2 variants, including those capable of circumventing vaccine and immune responses.
Supplementary Information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s11696-023-03274-5.
Competing Interests: Conflict of interestWe declare none.
(© The Author(s) 2024.)