Hybrid compounds from chalcone and 1,2-benzothiazine pharmacophores as selective inhibitors of alkaline phosphatase isozymes.

Chalcones and 1,2-benzothiazines are two important classes of bioactive compounds, each scaffold endowed with diverse pharmacological activities. Combining both of these pharmacophores in a single molecule was aimed to yield multi-modal agents. Herein, we report a series of hybrid compounds 3a-3o derived from chalcones and 1,2-benzothiazine cores. They were synthesized from commercially available sodium saccharin, and the resulting 1,2-benzothiazine-derived ketone was then condensed with aromatic aldehydes in an aldol condensation to obtain the respective chalcones. The compounds were characterized using different analytical techniques including FT-IR, NMR spectroscopy, mass spectrometry and X-ray crystallography. Some synthesized chalcones revealed potent and/or selective inhibitory properties towards alkaline phosphatase isozymes transiently expressed in COS-7 cells. A detailed structure-activity and selectivity study was carried out with regard to the effect of different substituents at ortho-, meta- and para-positions of the phenyl residue. Compound 3c was the most effective human intestinal alkaline phosphatase (h-IAP) inhibitor (IC50 value of 1.04 μM), while it was not active against human tissue non-specific alkaline phosphatase (h-TNAP) isozyme. In contrast, 3i was a selective inhibitor of h-TNAP with IC50 values of 0.25 ± 0.01 μM. The possible binding interactions of the most effective inhibitors of h-TNAP and h-IAP were obtained from molecular docking studies.