Antiviral evaluation of bioactive azo derivatives to treat endemic poultry viruses

Abstract

The present study focused on the synthesis, In Ovo antiviral evaluation and In silico study of most active antiviral
compounds of the azo series. The synthesis of title compounds was done by the coupling reaction of diazonium salt
solutions with active methylene (1,3-dioxolane and benzimidazole), to yield [(E)-1-(1,3-dioxolan-2-yl)-2-phenyldiazene]
(A1), [(E)-1-(1,3-dioxolan-2-yl)-2-(4-methyl-phenyl)diazene] (A2), 2-[(E)-phenyldiazenyl]-1H-benzimidazole] (A3) ,
[(E)-1-(1,3-dioxolan-2-yl)-2-(4-ethylphenyl)diazene] (A4) and [(E)-1-(1,3-dioxolan-2-yl)-2-(2-methylphenyl)diazene]
(A5). The structures of newly synthesized molecules were elucidated by spectroscopic techniques (EI-MS and FT-IR).
In Ovo screening of compounds against avian influenza virus (AIV) H9N2 strain and Newcastle Disease virus (NDV)
Lasota strain was done. The evaluation data suggested that azo compound (A5) exhibited the highest anti-AIV and
anti-NDV activity (100% inhibition at 0.1 mg/100 µL) compared to the other azo compounds which showed less activity
at given concentrations. Docking study further suggested that azo compound (A5) binds with the active site residues
of viral proteins with good binding affinity (-6.9 and -8.0 kcal/mol) compared to the standard oseltamivir due to the
substitution of -CH3 group at ortho position on the phenyl ring. Hence, based on this examination, it was concluded
that azo compound (A5) may act as a platform for designing more active antiviral agents.