Green Synthesis of Zinc Oxide NPs as a New Catalyst for the Synthesis of Imidazo[2,1-b]quinazoline Derivatives with Docking Validation as Aurora Kinase (AKI-001) Inhibitors

Abstract: As natural capping reagents, flaxseed gel, caprylic/capric triglyceride, aloe vera, and propylene glycol were utilized in the synthesis of ZnO-NPs in the current study. The synthesized ZnO NPs structure was characterized by Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM), Fourier Transform Infrared (FT-IR), and X-ray Diffraction (XRD). The prepared ZnO-NPs were used as an efficient catalyst for the production of a new series of fused polynuclear heterocyclic system-based imidazoquinazoline by multicomponent reaction. The reaction was initiated by mixing 2-aminobenzimidazole, aryl/hetaryl aldehydes, and betanaphthol under solvent-free conditions at 60-70°C in the presence of a catalytic amount of the synthesized ZnO-NPs. As demonstrated by molecular docking, the prepared ligands (4, 7, 8, 9, and 11) exhibited outstanding validation as aurora kinase inhibitors in comparison to AKI-001, the prototype pentacyclic inhibitor.