Novel quinoxalinyl chalcone hybrid scaffolds as enoyl ACP reductase inhibitors: Synthesis, molecular docking and biological evaluation.

We report herein, first ever synthesis of series of novel differently substituted quinoxalinyl chalcones using Claisen Schmidt condensation, its molecular docking studies, and potential to be good anti-microbial, anti-tubercular and anti-cancer agents. The antimicrobial studies were carried out against Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli and Candida albicans using disc diffusion procedure. The selected chalcones were tested for anti-cancer and cytotoxicity activity against MCF-7 cancer cell line using MTT assay method. All the synthesized compounds were screened for in vitro anti-tubercular screening against MtbH37RV strains by Alamar blue dye method. These results were compared with molecular docking studies carried out on Mycobacterium tuberculosis enzyme enoyl ACP reductase using Surflex-Dock program that is interfaced with Sybyl-X 2.0. SAR analysis for antimicrobial and antitubercular activity has also been proposed.