Synthesis of Azole-containing Piperazine Derivatives and Evaluation of their Antibacterial, Antifungal and Cytotoxic Activities

A series of azole-containing piperazine derivatives have been designed and synthesized. The obtained compounds were investigated in vitro for their antibacterial, antifungal and cytotoxic activities. The preliminary results showed that most compounds exhibited moderate to significant antibacterial and antifungal activities in vitro. 1-(4-((4-chlorophenyl) (phenyl)methyl)piperazin-1-yl)-2-(1H-imidazol-1-yl)ethanone and 1-(4-((4-Chlorophenyl)(phenyl)methyl)piperazin-1yl)-2-(2-phenyl-1H-imidazol-1-yl)ethanone gave remarkable and broad-spectrum antimicrobial efficacy against all tested strains with MIC values ranging from 3.1 to 25 μg/mL, and exhibited comparable activities to the standard drugs chloramphenicol and fluconazole in clinic. Moreover, 2-((4-((4-chlorophenyl)(phenyl)methyl)piperazin-1-yl)methyl)1H-benzo[d]imidazole was found to be the most effective in vitro against the PC-3 cell line, reaching growth inhibition values (36.4, 60.1 and 76.5%) for each tested concentration: 25 μM, 50 μΜ and 100 μM in dose-dependent manner. The results also showed that the azole ring had noticeable effect on their antimicrobial and cytotoxic activities, and imidazole and benzimidazole moiety were much more favourable to biological activity than 1,2,4-triazole.