Converging thiolactone and quinoline scaffolds: New potential antitubercular conjugates

Tuberculosis infections pose a serious challenge, particularly because of the emergence of drug resistant mycobacterial strains, highlighting the need of development of new drugs. We report twenty-four new compounds that are designed and synthesized by converging thiolactone and quinoline scaffolds as potential antitubercular entities. Bacterial assay demonstrated one of the conjugates, 4f to be a highly potent molecule with minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) value of 0.5 mu g/mL, comparable to first line drugs. Remarkably, the conjugate 4f demonstrated similar potency against rifampicin and multidrug resistant mycobacterial strains while exhibiting little toxicity against normal cells. In vivo studies demonstrated the promising potential of the conjugate for further development. Finally, a molecular docking study was conducted on four different targets to elucidate the plausible mechanism of action.