Antibacterial Profile in vitro and in vivo of New 1,4-Naphthoquinones Tethered to 1,2,3-1H-Triazoles against the Planktonic Growth of Streptococcus mutans

Abstract

The cariogenic processes are mainly caused by the bacterium Streptococcus mutans (S. mutans) and consist of the demineralization of the tooth that occurs when the acid production overcomes the natural repair or if a problem occurs in the last one. In this work, we performed the synthesis of twenty-one 1,4-naphthoquinones tethered to 1,2,3-1H-triazoles (8a-8k and 9a-9j), antibacterial evaluation against the S. mutans in vitro and the acute toxicity of the better ones in vivo. We observed strong inhibition results in the disc diffusion test ranging, the halos of inhibitions, from 18.66 (± 0.57) to 29 (± 2.64) mm, and good values in the minimum inhibitory concentration (5 to 50 μg), for the compounds 9e, 9h, 9i and 9j. Furthermore, they do not have a cytotoxic effect at the concentrations tested. Besides that, in the in vivo test, they show some slight alteration in the histopathological analyses and the biochemistry. Thus, we found four potential candidates to become instruments for the treatment of cavities.