Benzouracil-coumarin-arene conjugates as inhibiting agents for chikungunya virus

Chikungunya virus (CHIKV) is an arbovirus that was first recognized in an epidemic form in East Africa in 1952-1953. The virus is primarily transmitted through mosquitoes and the resulting disease, chikungunya fever, is found in nearly 40 countries. Neither an effective vaccine nor a specific antiviral drug exists for treatments of chikungunya fever. Thus 22 new conjugated compounds of uracil-coumarin-arene were designed and synthesized as potential inhibiting agents. Their chemical structures were determined unambiguously by spectroscopic methods, including single-crystal X-ray diffraction crystallography. The three units in these conjugates were connected by specially designed -SCH₂- and -OSO₂- joints. Five of these new conjugates were found to inhibit CHIKV in Vero cells with significant potency (EC₅₀ = 10.2-19.1 μM) and showed low toxicity (CC₅₀ = 75.2-178 μM). The selective index values were 8.8-11.5 for three conjugates. By analysis of the data from the anti-viral assays, the structure-activity relationship is derived on the basis of the nature of the uracil, the functional groups attached to the arene, and the joints between the ring units.