Structural Simplification of Bedaquiline: the Discovery of 3-(4-(N,N-Dimethylaminomethyl)phenyl)quinoline-Derived Antitubercular Lead Compounds.

Bedaquiline (BDQ) is a novel and highly potent last-line antituberculosis drug that was approved by the US FDA in 2013. Owing to its stereo-structural complexity, chemical synthesis and compound optimization are rather difficult and expensive. This study describes the structural simplification of bedaquiline while preserving antitubercular activity. The compound's structure was split into fragments and reassembled in various combinations while replacing the two chiral carbon atoms with an achiral linkage instead. Four series of analogues were designed; these candidates retained their potent antitubercular activity at sub-microgram per mL concentrations against both sensitive and multidrug-resistant (MDR) Mycobacterium tuberculosis strains. Six out of the top nine MIC-ranked candidates were found to inhibit mycobacterial ATP synthesis activity with IC50 values between 20 and 40 µm, one had IC50 >66 µm, and two showed no inhibition, despite their antitubercular activity. These results provide a basis for the development of chemically less complex, lower-cost bedaquiline derivatives and describe the identification of two derivatives with antitubercular activity against non-ATP synthase related targets.

Design, synthesis and cytotoxicity of novel podophyllotoxin derivatives.

A series of novel podophyllotoxin derivatives were designed using association strategy and synthesized by coupling either podophyllotoxin (1) or 4beta-amino podophyllotoxin (3) with substituted indol-3-yl-glyoxyl chlorides. Their structures were identified using spectroscopic techniques. These novel derivatives have been evaluated for cytotoxicity in vitro against four human cancer cell lines with comparison to the parent compounds 1, 3 and indibulin (2). Some of the compounds (7a, 7c) showed comparable cytotoxicity to that of podophyllotoxin.