Design, synthesis, and biological evaluation of dihydroartemisinin-fluoroquinolone conjugates as a novel type of potential antitubercular agents

Tuberculosis remains a global public health problem in recent years. To develop novel type of potential antitubercular agents, twelve novel dihydroartemisinin-fluoroquinolone (DHA-FQ) conjugates (three types of molecules) were gradually designed and conveniently synthesized. All the newly synthesized conjugates were well characterized and evaluated against different Mycobacterium tuberculosis strains in vitro. The screening results showed that five DHA-FQ conjugates were active toward M. tuberculosis H37Rv, and compound 3a exhibited the strongest inhibitory activity (MIC=0.0625 μg/mL), which was comparable to the positive control Moxifloxacin and even stronger than Ofloxacin. Conjugates 2a and 3a also displayed comparable activities against various clinically isolated sensitive and resistant M. tuberculosis strains (MIC=0.125-16 μg/mL) to Moxifloxacin. All target compounds possessed selective anti-M. tuberculosis ability. Preliminary structure-activity relationship demonstrated that short linker between DHA and FQ was favorable for strong antitubercular activity. This study provides a new clue for the development of novel antitubercular lead molecules.