Yan Zhanga,
Zhiwu Longa,
Longjia Yanab,
Li Liuab,
Lan Yangab and
Yi Le*ab
aSchool of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Guizhou University, Guiyang 550025, China. E-mail: yile2021@163.com
bGuizhou Engineering Laboratory for Synthetic Drugs, Guiyang 550025, China
First published on 8th September 2022
Polysubstituted phenylisoxazoles were designed and synthesized to discover new antibacterial agents via [3 + 2] cycloaddition. Thirty-five compounds with a phenylisoxazole scaffold were characterized by NMR, HRMS, and X-ray techniques. After being evaluated against Xanthomonas oryzae (Xoo), Pseudomonas syringae (Psa), and Xanthomonas axonopodis (Xac), 4-nitro-3-phenylisoxazole derivatives were found to better antibacterial activities. Further studies have shown that the EC50 values of these compounds were much better than that of the positive control, bismerthiazol.
Isoxazole derivatives are important heterocyclic compounds that are widely used in pesticides.9 For instance, 5-methylisoxazol-3-ol (hymexazol in Fig. 1) is considered as a soil disinfectant and plant growth regulator.10 Isouron (Fig. 1), a selective herbicide, is mostly employed to control the weeds such as paspalum and white grass.11 Isoxaflutole (Fig. 1) belongs to early sulfone herbicides, and are mainly applied in corn and sugarcane fields.12 Benzamizole, a herbicide cell division inhibitor (Fig. 1), is usually used in broad-leaved plants including cereal crops, broad beans, peas, trees, and grapes.13 Based on the characteristics and wide application of isoxazole derivatives, the rapid and efficient construction of various isoxazole derivatives has become the focus of researchers.14 Among the synthetic methods of isoxazole compounds, the most efficient strategy is [3 + 2] cycloaddition.15 Therefore, many chemists have used this method to synthesize isoxazole compounds and apply them to develop new pesticides.16
Our group has focused on the development of small molecules with various biological activities for several years.17 Considering the urgent need for novel pesticides containing isoxazole rings and our previous research on heterocyclic compounds,18 we designed and synthesized phenylisoxazole derivatives as a novel pesticide in agriculture. Furthermore, there are only a few reports on phenylisoxazoles as antibacterial agents in literature. In this study, we first developed a new synthetic method for constructing a phenylisoxazole ring with diverse substituent groups. Subsequently, we screened the biological activities of these compounds to obtain novel pesticides.
Entry | Additive | Base | Solvent | T (°C) | Yield (%) |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
a Reagents and conditions: 1a (1 mmol), 2a (1.2 mmol), additive (2 mmol), base (1 mmol), solvent (6 mL), 6 h.b Isolated yields.c Reagents and conditions: 1a (1 mmol), 2a (1.2 mmol), NCS (1.2 mmol), DBU (1 mmol), DMF (6 mL), 6 h. | |||||
1 | NCS | DBU | DMF | 25 | 65 (63)c |
2 | NCS | DBU | CH2Cl2 | 25 | 38 |
3 | NCS | DBU | THF | 25 | 31 |
4 | NCS | DBU | Dioxane | 25 | None |
5 | NBS | DBU | DMF | 25 | 17 |
6 | NIS | DBU | DMF | 25 | 19 |
7 | PIFA | DBU | DMF | 25 | 39 |
8 | Chloramine | DBU | DMF | 25 | 37 |
9 | NCS | Cs2CO3 | DMF | 25 | 43 |
10 | NCS | K2CO3 | DMF | 25 | 51 |
11 | NCS | NaOtBu | DMF | 25 | 51 |
12 | NCS | Na2CO3 | DMF | 25 | 53 |
13 | NCS | Pyrrolidine | DMF | 25 | 47 |
14 | NCS | NaOH | DMF | 25 | 52 |
15 | NCS | DMAP | DMF | 25 | 55 |
16 | NCS | DIEA | DMF | 25 | 80 |
17 | NCS | DABCO | DMF | 25 | 63 |
18 | NCS | TEA | DMF | 25 | 85 |
19 | NCS | TEA | DMF | 50 | 84 |
20 | NCS | TEA | DMF | 75 | 79 |
21 | NCS | TEA | DMF | 100 | 74 |
Having the optimal condition in hand (Table 1, entry 18), the scope was explored in different substituted phenyloxime derivatives and phenylacetylene derivatives (Table 2). Phenyloximes with electron-donating groups –CH3 and –OCH3 resulted in lower yields than 2a, while electron-withdrawing groups –F and –CF3 resulted in higher yields than 2a (3a–3g). Furthermore, the steric effect of substituents on the phenyl ring also decreased the yield of this [3 + 2] cycloaddition (3c–3e). In addition, phenyloxime derivatives such as 3-methyl (2h), 4-methyl (2i), 4-methoxy (2j), 3-chloro (2k) benzaldehyde oximes produced the desired products in 65–76% yield (3h–3l).
a Reagents and conditions: 1 (1 mmol), 2 (1.2 mmol), NCS (2 mmol), TEA (1 mmol), DMF (6 mL), 25 °C, 6 h. |
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Structural diversity is very crucial for screening new antibacterial agents.21 To ensure molecular diversity, 3,4-disubstituted isoxazoles were synthesized (Table 3), and benzaldehyde oxime (1a) and commercially available 4-dimethylamino-but-3-en-2-one (4a) were chosen as the starting materials. Under the identical conditions as mentioned previously, compound 5a was isolated with 61% yield (Table 3). The structure of 5a was confirmed by NMR and HRMS, which was consistent with that obtained from other cycloadditions using hypervalent iodine reagent as the catalyst.20 Subsequently, a phenyl ring with electron-donating groups –CH3 (5b) and –OCH3 (5c) produced lower yields, while electron-withdrawing groups –CF3 (5e) and –NO2 (5h) produced higher yields than 5a. The steric effect of substituents on the phenyl ring significantly decreased the yield of this cycloaddition (5f, 5g and 5h). Besides, 3-dimethylamino-acrylic acid ethyl ester (4b) was also used in this reaction instead of compound 4a. Fortunately, the final targets 5i–5n were successfully synthesized with 44–67% yields. The effect of substituents on the yield was similar to 5a–5h. Nitroisoxazole derivatives have a wide range of biological activities, such as antitumor, antibacterial, and anti-inflammatory.22 To investigate the antibacterial activities of nitroisoxazoles, 4-nitro-3-phenylisoxazole derivatives were prepared. Dimethyl-(2-nitrovinyl)-amine (4c) reacted with corresponding phenyloximes (1) to give the products 5o–5w. The yield was moderate from 36% to 63%.
a Reagents and conditions: 1 (1 mmol), 4 (1.2 mmol), NCS (2 mmol), TEA (1 mmol), DMF (6 mL), 25 °C, 6 h. |
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In addition, the NMR spectra of compound 5o was consistent with the data in the literature.23 However, the test result of HRMS was inconsistent with the actual values. This phenomenon was observed in all the 4-nitro-3-phenylisoxazole derivatives. To ensure the structures of this series of products, compounds 5p, 5q, and 5r were characterized by X-ray diffraction analysis. As shown in Fig. 2, the deposition numbers in CCDC (Cambridge Crystallographic Data Centre) were 2130131 (5p), 2130134 (5q), and 2153382 (5r). These results indirectly indicate that the structures of compounds 5o–5w were appropriate.
To investigate the mechanism, the benzaldehyde oxime 1a and compound 4c were subjected to undergo [3 + 2] cycloaddition. Based on the observed results and the reports in the literature,24 the regioselectivity of the [3 + 2] cycloaddition reaction between nitrile N-oxides and conjugated nitroalkenes was determined by the nucleophilic attack of oxygen atom from the CNO moiety on the activated electrophilic 2-position of nitroalkene. Considering several mechanisms related to the 32CA reaction,25 we described a plausible mechanism in Scheme 1. Initially, the NCS chlorinated oxime 1a afforded an intermediate 6. Then, compound 6 was dechlorinated under base DIEA to form nitrile oxide 7. Finally, it was reacted with compound 4c to afford the isoxazole compound 5o through [3 + 2] cycloaddition with 55% yield.
In order to explain the pathway of this mechanism, we conducted two complementary experiments. As shown in Scheme 2, under the optimized conditions, the benzaldehyde oxime 1a was converted to compound 6 with 85% yield in the presence of NCS. The NMR spectra of 6 was consistent with the literature.26 At last, compound 6 reacted with (E)-N,N-dimethyl-2-nitroethen-1-amine 4c at 25 °C to afford the required product 5o in 55% yield. These complementary experiments successfully proved our proposed mechanism in Scheme 1.
With the target compounds 3a–3l and 5a–5w in hand, we screened in vitro screening of antibacterial activities against representative plant diseases including Xanthomonas oryzae (Xoo), Xanthomonas axonopodis (Xac), and Pseudomonas syringae (Psa) at 100 μg mL−1 and 50 μg mL−1 according to the previous report.27 The results are listed in Table 4. The activities of compounds 3a–3l and 5a–5n were lower than those of bismerthiazol and fluopyram.28 It was interesting to note that the activities of compounds 5o–5w were much better than the positive controls. Surprisingly, the inhibitions against Xoo and Xac were more than 90% at the concentration of 100 μg mL−1 and 50 μg mL−1. Therefore, compounds 5o–5w were selected for further studies as novel antibacterial agents.
Entry | Cpd | Xoo (μg mL−1) | Xac (μg mL−1) | Psa (μg mL−1) | |||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
100 | 50 | 100 | 50 | 100 | 50 | ||
a The average of three trials. | |||||||
1 | 3a | — | — | — | — | 9.6 ± 2.1 | — |
2 | 3b | — | — | — | — | 10.7 ± 3.8 | — |
3 | 3c | — | — | 38.2 ± 3.7 | 15.0 ± 2.4 | 15.8 ± 1.4 | — |
4 | 3d | — | — | 35.5 ± 2.8 | 12.9 ± 1.7 | 12.6 ± 1.1 | — |
5 | 3e | — | — | 36.1 ± 3.2 | 14.6 ± 2.5 | 14.9 ± 0.8 | — |
6 | 3f | — | — | — | — | 14.5 ± 4.5 | — |
7 | 3g | — | — | 43.5 ± 5.9 | 38.1 ± 2.1 | 19.6 ± 1.5 | — |
8 | 3h | — | — | 35.1 ± 3.7 | 20.3 ± 5.0 | 18.6 ± 5.8 | — |
9 | 3i | — | — | 44.8 ± 3.6 | 21.6 ± 2.5 | 19.3 ± 4.5 | 18.3 ± 7.4 |
10 | 3j | — | — | 14.4 ± 2.7 | — | 16.8 ± 4.9 | 9.3 ± 4.1 |
11 | 3k | — | — | 46.7 ± 3.6 | 36.1 ± 4.1 | 19.2 ± 4.2 | — |
12 | 3l | — | — | 72.8 ± 2.5 | 35.1 ± 1.3 | 16.0 ± 0.9 | 5.8 ± 2.2 |
13 | 5a | 29.6 ± 0.9 | 22.4 ± 3.6 | 34.4 ± 3.5 | 25.3 ± 2.6 | 27.4 ± 0.4 | 17.7 ± 0.2 |
14 | 5b | 41.1 ± 5.7 | 28.7 ± 3.1 | 45.8 ± 1.7 | 29.5 ± 4.3 | 27.0 ± 5.7 | 14.9 ± 2.8 |
15 | 5c | 32.9 ± 4.1 | 31.5 ± 2.2 | 39.0 ± 8.2 | 12.3 ± 6.0 | 27.6 ± 4.9 | 16.5 ± 2.0 |
16 | 5d | 42.4 ± 5.2 | 27.6 ± 3.4 | 46.7 ± 1.8 | 28.6 ± 4.1 | 26.8 ± 5.3 | 13.7 ± 2.5 |
17 | 5e | 42.2 ± 1.7 | 10.4 ± 5.9 | 64.0 ± 4.6 | 56.8 ± 5.1 | 29.6 ± 2.2 | 16.0 ± 3.0 |
18 | 5f | 33.5 ± 1.1 | 24.1 ± 1.6 | 60.6 ± 7.4 | 46.2 ± 4.2 | 26.8 ± 2.7 | 14.3 ± 2.6 |
19 | 5g | 37.9 ± 6.9 | 26.8 ± 8.3 | 51.9 ± 8.4 | 29.3 ± 6.6 | 25.3 ± 1.9 | 12.0 ± 1.4 |
20 | 5h | 48.4 ± 2.8 | 19.3 ± 4.7 | 51.3 ± 2.5 | 26.0 ± 6.5 | 25.7 ± 1.5 | 13.4 ± 1.6 |
21 | 5i | 34.9 ± 1.6 | 26.5 ± 5.1 | 70.4 ± 5.0 | 51.6 ± 3.4 | 26.0 ± 0.7 | 14.8 ± 5.1 |
22 | 5j | 37.7 ± 1.4 | 28.9 ± 4.3 | 63.7 ± 4.5 | 46.2 ± 2.8 | 28.2 ± 0.5 | 16.4 ± 5.8 |
23 | 5k | 36.8 ± 1.9 | 28.7 ± 6.7 | 72.9 ± 6.1 | 53.7 ± 4.9 | 27.1 ± 0.8 | 15.3 ± 6.6 |
24 | 5l | 42.2 ± 1.7 | 10.4 ± 5.9 | 74.0 ± 4.6 | 56.8 ± 7.1 | 26.5 ± 0.7 | 16.6 ± 4.5 |
25 | 5m | 33.5 ± 1.1 | 24.1 ± 1.6 | 60.6 ± 2.4 | 46.2 ± 5.2 | 27.1 ± 0.8 | 15.3 ± 3.6 |
26 | 5n | 41.2 ± 1.8 | 26.7 ± 1.5 | 62.1 ± 2.1 | 42.0 ± 4.8 | 28.8 ± 1.2 | 16.8 ± 3.4 |
27 | 5o | 97.7 ± 0.2 | 93.6 ± 0.3 | 99.5 ± 0.4 | 98.5 ± 0.1 | 60.8 ± 3.2 | 55.6 ± 6.5 |
28 | 5p | 97.7 ± 1.0 | 96.8 ± 0.0 | 97.9 ± 1.0 | 96.4 ± 0.6 | 66.3 ± 5.6 | 63.7 ± 5.2 |
29 | 5q | 97.7 ± 0.1 | 94.0 ± 0.3 | 97.8 ± 0.7 | 95.6 ± 0.1 | 65.4 ± 4.5 | 57.0 ± 4.6 |
30 | 5r | 96.4 ± 0.1 | 93.5 ± 0.1 | 99.2 ± 0.2 | 97.7 ± 0.2 | 58.4 ± 1.4 | 41.7 ± 1.3 |
31 | 5s | 97.8 ± 0.1 | 97.6 ± 0.1 | 97.9 ± 0.3 | 97.5 ± 0.0 | 55.0 ± 4.1 | 51.7 ± 5.3 |
32 | 5t | 97.9 ± 0.1 | 96.6 ± 0.1 | 99.8 ± 0.4 | 97.6 ± 0.6 | 53.3 ± 0.5 | 48.0 ± 1.9 |
33 | 5u | 96.0 ± 0.3 | 69.4 ± 6.5 | 99.6 ± 0.2 | 95.4 ± 0.0 | 42.7 ± 4.5 | 21.7 ± 0.7 |
34 | 5v | 97.5 ± 0.1 | 94.1 ± 0.5 | 98.9 ± 0.0 | 98.7 ± 0.1 | 44.2 ± 5.0 | 40.8 ± 1.6 |
35 | 5w | 97.5 ± 0.1 | 94.1 ± 0.5 | 98.9 ± 0.0 | 98.7 ± 0.1 | 44.2 ± 5.0 | 40.8 ± 1.6 |
Bismerthiazol | 73.9 ± 1.1 | 29.3 ± 1.7 | 78.8 ± 6.6 | 46.7 ± 2.3 | 39.0 ± 3.5 | 15.6 ± 4.1 |
As shown in Table 5, compounds 5o–5w exhibited much better EC50 values against Xoo, Xac, and Psa than bismerthiazol and fluopyram.28 Preliminary structure–activity relationship can also be found in Table 5. The ortho-substituted derivatives (5p, 5s) have better activities than meso-substituted derivatives (5q, 5t) and para-substituted derivatives (5r, 5u, and 5v). Against Xoo, the large-steric substituted compounds 5t (–Br, 9.1 μg mL−1) and 5w (–NO2, 7.9 μg mL−1) have lower EC50 than small-steric substituted compound 5q (–F, 12.6 μg mL−1). A similar phenomenon was observed against Xac. However, against Psa, small-steric substituted compound 5q (12.6 μg mL−1) showed a better effect than large-steric substituted compound 5t (47.0 μg mL−1).
Compound | Regression equation | Correlation coefficient (r) | EC50 (μg mL−1) |
---|---|---|---|
a The average of three trials. | |||
Xanthomonas oryzae (Xoo) | |||
Bismerthiazol | y = 0.5792x + 2.3536 | 0.9595 | 82.3 ± 5.1 |
5o | y = 3.2815x + 0.658 | 0.9856 | 15.0 ± 0.8 |
5p | y = 3.6552x + 7.277 | 0.9683 | 11.7 ± 0.4 |
5q | y = 3.7164x + 3.068 | 0.9883 | 12.6 ± 0.5 |
5r | y = 3.5643x + 2.158 | 0.9835 | 13.4 ± 0.4 |
5s | y = 6.55167x + 0.248 | 0.9530 | 7.6 ± 0.3 |
5t | y = 5.3958x + 0.8359 | 0.9838 | 9.1 ± 0.3 |
5u | y = 3.1172x + 0.4496 | 0.9667 | 15.9 ± 0.8 |
5v | y = 1.6916x + 0.0594 | 0.9870 | 29.5 ± 1.4 |
5w | y = 6.0038x + 2.4873 | 0.9861 | 7.9 ± 0.4 |
Xanthomonas axonopodis (Xac) | |||
Bismerthiazol | y = 0.8141x + 0.3426 | 0.9599 | 61.0 ± 4.4 |
5o | y = 19.477x + 1.2731 | 0.9394 | 2.5 ± 0.1 |
5p | y = 15.73x + 6.1445 | 0.9082 | 2.8 ± 0.2 |
5q | y = 9.3762x + 5.5612 | 0.9371 | 4.7 ± 0.2 |
5r | y = 6.8912x + 5.5944 | 0.9804 | 6.4 ± 0.3 |
5s | y = 10.836x + 18.611 | 0.9176 | 2.9 ± 0.2 |
5t | y = 13.73x + 10.154 | 0.9309 | 2.9 ± 0.2 |
5u | y = 7.3972x + 5.8451 | 0.9466 | 6.0 ± 0.3 |
5v | y = 6.922x + 5.6802 | 0.9762 | 6.4 ± 0.4 |
5w | y = 12.884x + 14.465 | 0.9782 | 2.8 ± 0.2 |
Pseudomonas syringae (Psa) | |||
Bismerthiazol | >100 | ||
5o | y = 0.6055x + 23.34 | 0.9104 | 44.0 ± 3.8 |
5p | y = 1.1501x + 19.741 | 0.9581 | 26.3 ± 2.2 |
5q | y = 0.9974x + 13.765 | 0.9199 | 36.3 ± 2.7 |
5r | y = 0.6203x + 14.995 | 0.9779 | 56.4 ± 5.1 |
5s | y = 0.699x + 6.2785 | 0.9784 | 62.6 ± 5.3 |
5t | y = 0.9171x + 6.8663 | 0.9650 | 47.0 ± 3.7 |
5u | y = 0.6372x + 14.585 | 0.9821 | 55.6 ± 4.6 |
5v | >100 | ||
5w | >100 |
Footnote |
† Electronic supplementary information (ESI) available. CCDC 2130131, 2130134 and 2153382. For ESI and crystallographic data in CIF or other electronic format see https://doi.org/10.1039/d2ra05009a |
This journal is © The Royal Society of Chemistry 2022 |