Design, Synthesis and Biological Evaluation of Pyrimidine Analogues as SecA Inhibitors
Abstract SecA, a key component of the bacterial Sec-dependent secretion pathway, is an attractive target for the development of new antimicrobial agents. We have previously reported pyrimidine analogs as SecA inhibitors. Herein, we report an extension of the earlier work in the synthesis and evaluation of a series of 15 5-cyanothiouracil derivatives as SecA inhibitors. All the compounds have been evaluated for their inhibition of SecA ATPase (EcSecAN68) and for their antimicrobial activity against Escherichia coli NR698 (a leaky mutant) and Bacillus anthracis Sterne. Twelve compounds showed IC50 of less than 6.3 µM when tested against EcSecAN68. In antimicrobial studies against E. coli NR698, six compounds showed MIC of less than 12.5 µM with three being less than 6.3 µM. Against B. anthracis Sterne, three compounds showed MIC of less than 6.3 µM.
