Molecular docking and synthesis of caffeic acid analogous and its anti-inflammatory, analgesic and ulcerogenic studies

A series of caffeic acid (CA) derivatives 7a-j were synthesized via etherification and coupling action and their chemical structures were elucidated spectroscopically. Motivated by the various biological activities displayed by CA derivatives such as anti-inflammatory, antiviral, anticancer and antioxidant and also based on its extensively consumption in the human diet. In the present work, the newly synthesized compounds 7a-j were evaluated for anti-inflammatory and analgesic action and most of them exerted comparable activity to the reference compound celecoxib. Further, ulcer indexes for the most active compounds were calculated and most of them showed less ulcerogenic effect than the reference drug. Among the title series 7a-j, compounds 7f and 7g with electron withdrawing bromo and chloro group respectively, at the para position of the phenoxy ring was showed good activity compared to all other compounds. Interestingly, the COX-I/COX-II activity ratio of potent compounds 7f and7g showed an almost equal inhibitory effect on both isoenzymes. Further, molecular docking studies have been performed for the potent compounds which showed statistically significant result.