The Search for new antibacterial agents among 1,2,3-triazole functionalized ciprofloxacin and norfloxacin hybrids: synthesis, docking studies, and biological activity evaluation

Abstract

Among all modern antibiotics, fluoroquinolones are well known for their broad spectrums of activity and efficiency toward microorganisms and viruses. However, antibiotic resistance is still a problem, which has encouraged medicinal chemists to modify the initial structures in order to combat resistant strains. Our current work is aimed at synthesizing novel hybrid derivatives of ciprofloxacin and norfloxacin and applying docking studies and biological activity evaluations in order to find active promising molecules. We succeeded in the development of a synthetic method towards 1,2,3-triazole-substituted ciprofloxacin and norfloxacin derivatives. The structure and purity of the obtained compounds were confirmed by 1H NMR, 13C NMR, 19F NMR, LC/MS, UV-, IR- spectroscopy. Docking studies, together with in vitro research against Staphylococcus aureus ATCC 25923, Escherichia coli ATCC 25922, Bacillus subtilis ATCC 6633, Pseudomonas aeruginosa ATCC 27853, Candida albicans NCTC 885-653 revealed compounds in which activity exceeded the initial molecules