Synthesis, molecular docking and biological evaluation of new steroidal 4H-pyrans.

A series of new steroidal 4H-pyrans (4-6) have been synthesized from steroidal α, ß-unsaturated ketones (1-3). The products (4-6) were characterized by IR, (1)H NMR, (13)C NMR, MS and analytical data. The interaction studies of compounds (4-6) with DNA were carried out by employing gel electrophoresis, UV-vis and fluorescence spectroscopy. The gel electrophoresis pattern revealed that compounds (4-6) bind to DNA and also demonstrated that the compound 6 alone or in presence of Cu (II) causes the nicking of supercoiled pBR322. The compounds 4 and 5 bind to DNA preferentially through electrostatic and hydrophobic interactions with Kb values found to be 5.3×10(3) and 3.7×10(3) M(-1), respectively, indicating the higher binding affinity of compound 4 towards DNA. The docking study suggested the intercalation of compounds in between the nucleotide base pairs. The cytotoxicity and genotoxicity of the newly synthesized compounds were checked by MTT and comet assay, respectively during which compound 6 showed potential behaviour.

6-Hy-droxy-imino-5α-cholestane.

The title compound, C(27)H(47)NO, is a steroid derivative composed of a saturated carbon fused-ring framework with an alkyl side chain. Ring bond lengths have normal values with an average of 1.533 (2) Å, while the cholestane side chain shows an average bond length of 1.533 (2) Å. The three cyclohexane rings adopt chair conformations or close to chair conformations while the cyclopentane ring is twisted. The cholesterol side-chain is fully extended with a gauche-trans conformation of the terminal methyl groups. There are eight chiral centres in the molecule; the absolute configuration of these sites was determined from the structure presented. There are two molecules in the asymmetric unit; in one, the alkyl chain is disordered over two sets of sites [occupancy ratios of 0.50:0.50 and 0.67:0.33].