Hybrid PABA‐glutamic acid conjugated 1,3,5‐triazine derivatives: Design, synthesis, and antimalarial activity screening targeting Plasmodium falciparum dihydro folate reductase enzyme

Despite the successful reduction in the malaria health burden in recent years, it continues to remain a significant global health problem mainly because of the emerging resistance to first-line treatments. Also because of the disruption in malaria prevention services during the COVID-19 pandemic, there was an increase in malaria cases in 2021 compared to 2020. Hence, the present study outlined the in silico study, synthesis, and antimalarial evaluation of 1,3,5-triazine hybrids conjugated with PABA-glutamic acid. Docking study revealed higher binding energy compared to the originally bound ligand WR99210, predominant hydrogen bond interaction, and involvement of key amino acid residues, like Arg122, Ser120, and Arg59. Fourteen compounds were synthesized using traditional and microwave synthesis. The in vitro antimalarial evaluation against chloroquine-sensitive 3D7 and resistant Dd2 strain of Plasmodium falciparum showed a high to moderate activity range. Compounds C1 and B4 showed high efficacy against both strains and a further study revealed that compound C1 is non-cytotoxic against the HEK293 cell line with no acute oral toxicity. In vivo, study was performed for the most potent antimalarial compound C1 to optimize the research work and found to be effectively suppressing parasitemia of Plasmodium berghei strain in the Swiss albino mice model.