1, 3‐Benzothiazoles as Antimicrobial Agents

November 2015 1,3-Benzothiazoles as Antimicrobial Agents 1705Ivana Defrenza, Alessia Catalano,*Alessia Carocci,*Antonio Carrieri, Marilena Muraglia, Antonio Rosato,Filomena Corbo, and Carlo FranchiniDipartimento di Farmacia-Scienze del Farmaco, Università degli Studi di Bari ‘Aldo Moro’, via E. Orabona n. 4, 70125 Bari, Italy*E-mail: alessia.catalano@uniba.it; alessia.carocci@uniba.itReceived November 5, 2013DOI 10.1002/jhet.2222Published online 24 October 2014 in Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com).Starting from 2-amino-1,3-mercaptobenzothiazoles recently reported (1a–h), a series of the corresponding2-mercapto-1,3-benzothiazole isosters (2a–h) were screened for their in vitro antibacterial and antifungalactivities. Results underline that the presence of the mercapto moiety at the 2-position of the heterocyclic nu-cleus is crucial for activity against bacteria. The biological screening against Candida spp. identified com-mercial 2f as the most promising compound as antifungal against Candida albicans and tropicalis.Molecular modeling studies supported these results. Then, to enlarge structure-activity relationship (SAR)studies on series 1, newly synthesized compounds (1k–p) were reported. All the compounds belonging to thisseries and bearing a bulky substituent at the 6-position of the aryl moiety showed high antifungal activity.