Quinoline-fused benzoxazole hybrids: Design, synthesis, spectral characterization and biological evaluation

The aim was to develop a novel series of quinoline-fused benzoxazole ( 5a-l ) analogues while assessing their biological potentials. The title compounds were elucidated by 1 H NMR, 13 C NMR, IR, mass and elemental analysis approaches. The anti-inflammatory studies examined carried out the albumin denaturation assay. The scaffolds 5c (61.61%), 5d (60.58%), 5a (59.82%), and 5h (57.67%) exhibited appreciably good anti-inflammatory activity than the other derivatives. In an anticancer study using MTT assays against three cancer cell lines. Based on resulting data, derivatives 5f (IC 50 values: 3.21±0.11 – 3.45±0.12), 5e ( IC 50 values: 3.32±0.21 – 3.54±0.16) , and 5c (IC 50 values: 3.54±0.14 – 3.96±0.10) displayed strong anticancer potential compared to all other synthesized derivatives with higher percentage cell viability values. The newly developed quinoline-linked benzoxazole ( 5a-l ) scaffolds were screened for four bacterial species using the disc diffusion method. Analogues 5f (zone of inhibition: 25.6–30.1 ), 5e (zone of inhibition: 24.4–29.4 ) and 5c (zone of inhibition: 22.1–26.3 ) showed good antibacterial effects. Molecular docking studies of the newly synthesized compounds were carried out against the Enoyl reductase protein target and Doxorubicin standard drug. Among the tested compounds 5b (-9.4 kcal/mol) and 5i (-9.3 kcal/mol) exhibited strong binding energy values than the standard drug. Furthermore, in silico ADME-T assay (Absorption, Distribution, Metabolism, Excretion, and Toxicity) predictions showed good pharmacokinetic properties and drug-likeness, supporting their potential as lead synthesized molecules for further biological evaluation.