Biological Evaluation and Molecular Docking with In Silico Physicochemical, Pharmacokinetic and Toxicity Prediction of Pyrazolo[1,5-<i>a</i>]pyrimidines

Abstract

Pyrazolo[1,5-a]pyrimidines 5a−c, 9a−c and 13a−i were synthesized for evaluation of their in vitro antimicrobial properties against some microorganisms and their immunomodulatory activity. The biological activities of pyrazolo[1,5-a]pyrimidines showed that the pyrazolo[1,5-a]pyrimidines (5c, 9a, 9c, 13a, 13c, 13d, 13e and 13h) displayed promising antimicrobial and immunomodulatory activities. Studying the in silico predicted physicochemical, pharmacokinetic, ADMET and drug-likeness properties for the pyrazolo[1,5-a]pyrimidines 5a−c, 9a−c and 13a−i confirmed that most of the compounds (i) were within the range set by Lipinski’s rule of five, (ii) show higher gastrointestinal absorption and inhibition of some CYP isoforms, and (iii) have a carcinogenicity test that was predicted as negative and hERG test that presented medium risk. Moreover, the molecular docking study demonstrated that the compounds 5c, 9a, 9c, 13a, 13c, 13d, 13e and 13h are potent inhibitors of 14-alpha demethylase, transpeptidase and alkaline phosphatase enzymes. This study could be valuable in the discovery of a new series of drugs.

Keywords

• pyrazolo[1,5-<i>a</i>]pyrimidine
• antimicrobial
• immunomodulatory
• lipinski’s rule
• molecular docking
• enzyme inhibitor