Wound healing properties of Biginelli scaffolds in Tilapia gill cell line: an in vitro analysis and computational approaches.

Abstract

The skin is a vital organ that regulates the temperature, nutrient absorption, and perception of sensations. Wound healing is a complex biological process in multicellular systems that consists of four key phases: hemostasis, inflammation, proliferation, and remodeling. This study develops a new approach for synthesizing dihydropyrimidinones (DHPM) named Biginelli scaffolds via a simple, rapid, eco-friendly, and cost-effective solvent-free Biginelli reaction for wound healing activities. The synthesis involved a one-pot three-component coupling reaction of β-ketoester derivatives, anisaldehyde, and simple urea in a domestic microwave oven. The synthesized (B1-B4) scaffolds were characterized using melting point, UV-Vis, FT-IR, HRMS, 2D-NMR (NOESY), and proton/carbon NMR spectroscopies. The molecular docking results showed that the synthetic scaffolds (B1-B4) had strong binding abilities, with B3 and B4 having the best interactions in the group, similar to the control compound (curcumin). It exhibited less cytotoxic effects up to 80 µg/mL in Tilapia gill (TG) cells in the MTT assay. The synthesized scaffolds (60 µg/mL) enhanced TG cell growth and had potential applications in wound healing. Biginelli (B1-B4) scaffolds showed good antioxidant properties in the DPPH assay. RT-qPCR analysis indicated that TG cells exposed to different (B1-B4) scaffold concentrations had significantly increased VEGF gene expression. The scaffolds showed no toxic effects on adsorption, distribution, metabolism, excretion, and toxicity (ADMET) analysis, and the structure was optimized using the DFT-B3LYP-6311G-(d,p) hybrid basis set. This method has wide applications in future research and provides insights into tissue engineering and biomedical applications.