Synthesis of Schiff bases of pyridine-4-carbaldehyde and their antioxidant and DNA binding studies

A series of schiff bases of pyridine-4-carbaldehyde with 3-aminobenzoic acid,2-aminobenzoic acid,4-aminobenzoic acid,1,3-phenylenediamine,1,2-phenylenediamine,2-aminothiophenol,4-aminoantipyrene,2-aminophenol and naphthalene-1-amine was synthesized and compounds were characterized by ftir,nmr and mass spectrometry. the synthesized compounds were evaluated for their antioxidant and dna binding interaction studies. dpph scavenging method was used to evaluate the antioxidant activities of synthesized schiff bases at six gradually increasing concentrations of 0.5-5mg/ml. 2-[(pyridin-4-ylmethylidene)amino]phenol came out to be the most efficient antioxidant at a concentration of 4mg/ml with 74% inhibition of free radicals generated by dpph. the dna binding interaction of the synthesized schiff bases was determined using uv-vis absorption titration method. both the hypochromic and hyperchromic effects were observed along the series. the values for the binding constant (k) and free energy change (δg) were calculated and most of the schiff bases have high positive k values which indicate the efficient binding of schiff bases with dna. molecular docking studies as carried out using patchdock molecular algorithm software also indicated the high values for geometrical shape complementarity score suggesting the stabilities of schiff bases/dna complex. docking studies also suggested the minor groove binding of the schiff bases with dna. drug-likeness of the synthesized compounds was also tested in silico and the results are accordingly discussed. � 2016,chemical society of pakistan. all rights reserved.