In this manuscript, we describe the design, preparation, and studies of antimicrobial activity of a series of novel heteroarylated benzothiazoles. A molecular hybridization approach was used for the designing compounds. The in vitro evaluation exposed that these compounds showed moderate antibacterial activity. Compound 2j was found to be the most potent (MIC/MBC at 0.23-0.94 mg/mL and 0.47-1.88 mg/mL) On the other hand, compounds showed good antifungal activity (MIC/MFC at 0.06-0.47 and 0.11-0.94 mg/mL respectively) with 2d being the most active one. The docking studies revealed that inhibition of E. coli MurB and 14-lanosterol demethylase probably represent the mechanism of antibacterial and antifungal activities.
Keywords: antibacterial; antifungal; antimicrobial; heteroarylated benzothiazole; molecular docking.