Bisbenzimidazole Derivatives as Potential Antimicrobial Agents: Design, Synthesis, Biological Evaluation and Pharmacophore Analysis

In an attempt to design and synthesize a potent class of antimicrobials, 1,2-phenylenediamine derivatives were reacted with various aliphatic and heteroaliphatic dicarboxylic acids to generate a small library of 26 head-to-head bisbenzimidazole compounds ( 16 – 42 ) using the polyphosphoric acid method. These compounds were screened for their antibacterial activity and their antifungal activity. Compound 25 showed maximum potency against both Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacterial strains with minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) values in the range of 7.81 – 31.25 μg/mL. In particular, it showed the maximum MIC values of 7.81 μg/mL against Gram-negative bacteria, which was four-fold more active than the standard drug ampicillin (MIC = 32.25 μg/mL). Compound 19 was found to be the most active against S. aureus with a MIC value of < 3.90 μg/mL, whereas the remaining compounds showed only low-to-moderate activity. Furthermore, all compounds exhibited low activity against all fungal strains in comparison to the standard drug fluconazole. I addition, pharmacophore hypotheses were generated to analyze structure–activity relationships between the molecular structures and antimicrobial activities on E. coli . This pharmacophore model can be useful in order to design new antimicrobial drugs. It can be suggested that the substitution of a phenyl ring at the 5/6 and 5′/6′ positions in symmetric bisbenzimidazole derivatives produces compounds with promising antimicrobial activity.