Design, synthesis, antimicrobial activity and molecular docking studies of some novel di-substituted sulfonylquinoxaline derivatives.

2,3-Dioxo-1,2,3,4-tetrahydroquinoxaline-6-sulfonyl chloride 1 was prepared via reaction of o-phenylene diamine with oxalic acid followed by chlorosulfonation with excess chlorosulfonic acid. A series of new sulfonylquinoxaline derivatives 2-6 were obtained upon reacting compound 1 with different types of amines. 2,3-Dichloro-6-morpholinosulfonylquinoxaline derivative 6 was subjected to further chemical reactions to afford many derivatives of 6-morpholino 2,3-disubstitutedquinoxalines, thus reaction of compound 6 with different secondary amines yielded mono and di secondary aminoquinoxaline derivatives 7-10 depending on the reactivity difference of the two chlorine atoms. Hydrazinolysis of compound 7 furnished hydrazino quinoxaline derivatives 11a-c. Additionally triazolo and pyrazolyl quinoxaline derivatives 12-14 were obtained through the reaction of compound 11a with phenyl isothiocyanate, formylpyrazole and ethyl acetoacetate. All the synthesized compounds were screened for their antibacterial and antifungal activities. Compounds 7a, 9b, 10a, 10c, 10f and 11c showed good to moderate antimicrobial activity against the tested Gram-positive, Gram-negative bacteria and fungi with MIC values ranging from 2.44 to 180.14 μM. Their MBC values were also evaluated using the same tested microorganisms. Moreover, screening against multi-drug resistant strains revealed the promiscuity of these new derivatives, especially compound 7a that showed comparable antibacterial activity (MIC 4.91-9.82 μM) with Norfloxacin (MIC 2.44-9.80 µM). Furthermore, these compounds were evaluated as DNA Gyrase inhibitors and the obtained results were in the range of 15.69-23.72 µM. Immunomodulatory effect was also investigated and compounds 7a, 11c, 10f, 10c, 10a and 9b showed high immunostimulatory action with ratio (142.6 ± 0.4, 135.7 ± 0.5, 117.8 ± 0. 39, 112.5 ± 0. 83, 86.4 ± 0. 47, 72.8 ± 0. 77) respectively. Molecular docking studies of the promising derivatives into DNA Gyrase binding site proved the usefulness of hybridizing quinoxaline scaffold with SO and morpholine moieties as a hopeful strategy in designing new DNA Gyrase binding molecules.