The protozoan parasite Trypanosoma brucei (T. brucei) causes human African trypanosomiasis (HAT), which is a fatal and neglected disease in the tropic areas, and new treatments are urgently needed. Leucyl-tRNA synthetase (LeuRS) is an attractive target for the development of antimicrobial agents. In this work, starting from the hit compound thiourea ZCL539, we designed and synthesized a series of amides as effective T. brucei LeuRS (TbLeuRS) synthetic site inhibitors. The most potent compounds 74 and 91 showed IC50 of 0.24 and 0.25 μM, which were about 700-fold more potent than the starting hit compound. The structure-activity relationship was also discussed. These compounds provided a new scaffold and lead compounds for further development of antitrypanosomal agents.
Keywords: Leucyl-tRNA synthetase (LeuRS); N-(3-sulfamoylphenyl)amides; Trypanosoma brucei (T. brucei).
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