2-Ferrocene-4-amine-1H-benzo[d]imidazole and their derivatives: Synthesis, biological and docking study

An organometallic series based on 2-ferrocene-4-amine-1H-benzo[d]imidazole derivative has been synthesized and characterized through FTIR, H/CNMR, and LCMS. Their antimicrobial activity was assessed by testing them against B. subtills, Staphylococcus aureus, E. faecalis, S. marcescens, E. coli, K. pneumoniae, C. albicans, A. niger, Mucor sp. where they showed good zone of inhibition (ZOI) as compared to standards. The cytotoxicity of synthesized compounds was tested against Hela (cervical) and MCF-7 (breast) cancer cell lines where compound 5a and 5b displayed equivalent potency to the standard while 5e demonstrated highest cytotoxicity against both cell lines. Their comparative docking analysis with DNA suggested that docking score of 5e was -7.4 kcal/mol versus -6 kcal/mol of ethidium bromide, indicating that our designed compound acts via DNA intercalation.