α-Aminophosphonates as novel anti-leishmanial chemotypes: synthesis, biological evaluation, and CoMFA studies

A series of twenty six structurally diverse α-aminophosphonates have been synthesized and evaluated for in vitro anti-leishmanial activity and cytotoxicity using the MTT assay. Among them, seven compounds ( 1–7 ) exhibited anti-leishmanial potency against the L. donovani promastigote with IC 50 values in the low micromolar range. The structure–activity relationships were quantitatively evaluated by a statistically reliable CoMFA model with high predictive abilities ( r 2 pred = 0.87, r 2 ncv = 0.985).