Design, molecular docking and synthesis of some novel 4-acetyl-1-substituted-3,4-dihydroquinoxalin-2(1H)-one derivatives for anticonvulsant evaluation as AMPA-receptor antagonists

A new series of 4-acetyl-1-substituted-3,4-dihydroquinoxalin-2(1H)-ones (2-13) were designed and synthesized in order to evaluate their AMPA-receptor antagonism as a potential mode of anticonvulsant activity. The structure of the synthesized compounds was confirmed by elemental analysis and spectral data (IR, (HNMR)-H-1, (CNMR)-C-13 and Mass). The molecular design was performed for all the synthesized compounds to predict their binding affinity to AMPA-receptor in order to rationalize their anticonvulsant activity in a qualitative way. The data obtained from the molecular modeling was strongly correlated with that obtained from the biological screening which revealed that; compounds 12(b), 13, 12(a) and 7(a) showed the highest binding affinities toward AMPA-receptor and also showed the highest anticonvulsant activities against pentylenetetrazole -induced seizures in experimental mice. The relative potencies of these compounds were 1.66, 1.66, 1.61 and 0.82 respectively, in comparing to diazepam.