Seleno‐L‐cystine and Vanillin Schiff's base: Synthesis, Reaction Mechanism and Biological activity

Abstract In this study, the new Schiff base bearing Se−Se bond and vanillin core in the structure was synthesized from the naturally occurring amino acid selenocystine and vanillin as an aldehyde counterpart. Taking into account the fact that synergy of different pharmacophores in one molecular structure could bring interesting biological properties, the synthetized compound was screened for the antimicrobial activities with respect to their minimum inhibitory concentracion (MIC) values for different bacteria and fungi cultures, as well as for binding interactions with deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) and bovine serum albumin (BSA). Furthermore, the additional quantum chemical calculations and molecular docking simulations were performed for the better insight into detailed mechanism of Schiff base‐formation and mode of its biological activities. It has been observed that among tested bacterial and fungal strains, the best antimicrobial activity was displayed for the Staphylococcus aureus , while the fluorescence quenching experiments have revealed that compound possesses binding affinity towards both BSA and DNA.