Design, synthesis and antimycobacterial activity of thiazolidine-2,4-dione-based thiosemicarbazone derivatives

[Display omitted] •The thiosemicarbazone derivatives with thiazolidine-2,4-dione core were designed and synthesized.•The six compounds showed high antimycobacterial activity in vitro with a MIC = 0.031–0.125 µg/ml.•All the tested compounds were characterized by low cytotoxicity in vitro. The two series of thiosemicarbazone derivatives with thiazolidine-2,4-dione (TZD) core were designed and synthesized. The antimycobacterial activity of the target compounds was tested against Mycobacterium tuberculosis H37Ra by broth microdilution method with resazurin as an indicator of the metabolic activity of mycobacteria. Conducted studies revealed antimycobacterial activity in the concentration range of 0.031–64 µg/ml for 31 synthesized derivatives with TZD core. The highest antimycobacterial activity (MIC = 0.031–0.125 µg/ml) was demonstrated for the new group of compounds: TZD-based hybrids with 4-unsubstituted thiosemicarbazone substituent. Furthermore, all the tested compounds within this group were characterized by low cytotoxicity. Among tested compounds, two compounds are the most promising potential antimycobacterial agents since they not only show very low MIC values, but also non-toxicity against Vero cells at tested concentration range. High effectiveness and safety of these synthesized compounds makes them promising candidates as antimycobacterial agents.