by Thompson AM, Blaser A, Palmer BD, Anderson RF, Shinde SS, Launay D, Chatelain E, Maes L, Franzblau SG, Wan B, Wang Y, Ma Z, Denny WA. Bioorganic and Medicinal Chemistry Letters 2017, doi: 10.1016/j.bmcl.2017.03.069.
Summary: As part of a search for backups to antitubercular drug pretomanid, the authors investigated the unexplored 6-nitro-2,3-dihydroimidazo[2,1-b][1,3]-thiazoles and related oxazoles. Equivalent examples of these two structural classes were assessed in a mouse model of acute tuberculosis infection. Screening against kinetoplastid diseases revealed that nitroimidazothiazoles were inactive versus leishmaniasis but showed interesting activity, superior to that of the nitroimidazooxazoles, against Chagas disease. A potent “thio-delamanid” analogue may represent a useful new lead that is worthy of further assessment for this highly neglected disease.
