Interaction of Hydrazonophenylacetaldehyde Oxime with Acetone: Nitrone versus Oxime

Abstract Detailed experimental and computational studies of the nitrone 3,3‐dimethyl‐6‐phenyl‐2,3‐dihydro‐1,2,4‐triazin‐4‐oxide ( 2 ), which is a cyclized product of an open‐chain isomer 2‐phenyl‐2‐(propan‐2‐ylidenehydrazono)acetaldehyde oxime ( 1 ), are reported. The isolated compound 2 was characterized by elemental analysis, powder X‐ray diffraction, IR and UV‐vis spectroscopy, and spectrofluorometry. Electronic properties of 1 and 2 were elucidated by the DFT‐based calculations in water, which revealed that both compounds are pronounced electrophiles. The ADMET properties of the oxime 1 and nitrone 2 were predicted using the SwissADME, which includes the BOILED‐Egg method, and ProTox‐II online tools. Using a molecular docking approach, the discussed compounds were also predicted to actively interact with all the studied herein SARS‐CoV‐2 proteins. The most pronounced activity for both discussed compounds was established with Nonstructural protein 14 (Nsp14_N7‐MTase). Complex Nsp14_N7‐MTase‐ 1 is characterized by the calculated ligand efficiency scores being close for a Hit.