The College of Pharmacy discussed the MSc thesis entitled “In-Silico Study, Synthesis and Preliminary Antimicrobial Evaluation of New Chalcone Derived 1,2-Pyrazoline and 1,5-Benzodiazepine Compounds” by the student Sarah Khalid Ali and the supervisor, Assist. Prof. Tagreed N-A Omar, at the Pharmaceutical Chemistry Department.
The study aimed to achieve two main objectives. The first was to explore novel antimicrobial targets that could provide alternative approaches to overcome antimicrobial resistance, in addition to designing and developing chalcone-derived heterocyclic compounds, including 1,2-pyrazoline and 1,5-benzodiazepine derivatives, as promising lead compounds with improved drug-like properties and potential value for future antimicrobial development.
The study involved the synthesis of chalcone-derived compounds followed by chemical modifications to obtain new heterocyclic derivatives. The synthesized compounds were characterized using different physicochemical and spectroscopic techniques. Computational approaches were applied to investigate molecular interactions and predict the physicochemical and pharmacokinetic properties of the developed compounds. In addition, antimicrobial activities were evaluated against selected bacterial and fungal strains, supported by statistical analysis and structure activity relationship investigations.
The results showed that several of the synthesized compounds exhibited promising antimicrobial activity and favorable predicted pharmacological properties. The findings also demonstrated the importance of heterocyclic scaffold design in developing new compounds with enhanced biological activity and their potential use as scaffolds for the development of future antimicrobial agents. Furthermore, within this research direction, the study represents the first study worldwide to explore a novel antimicrobial target (Novel Antimicrobial Target), constituting an important scientific contribution to antimicrobial drug discovery and opening new avenues for rational drug design and the development of innovative strategies to address the global challenge of antimicrobial resistance.
The study recommended further structural optimization of the promising compounds, together with toxicity and selectivity studies and advanced pharmacological evaluations. It also recommended investigating their metabolic stability and efficacy in biological models, as well as expanding the evaluation to include resistant microbial strains to confirm the therapeutic potential of these compounds.
