Novel 2,4-disubstituted quinazoline analogs as antibacterial agents with improved cytotoxicity profile: Optimization of the 2,4-substituents

[Display omitted] •Screening of in-house library resulted in a hit compound active against Mycobacterium smegmatis.•Further modifications resulted in broad spectrum antibacterial compounds.•Bio-isosteric replacement of the 2-amino with sulfur maintains the antibacterial potency while improving the cytotoxicity profile.•Position 6 of the quinazoline as a potential growing vector.•A class of compounds with high potential for further optimization and development to potent antibacterial agents. The emergence of bacterial resistance has triggered a multitude of efforts to develop new antibacterial agents. There are many compounds in literature that were reported as potent antibacterial agents, however, they lacked the required safety to mammalian cells or no clear picture about their toxicity profile was presented. Inspired by discovered hit from our in-house library and by previously reported 2,4-diaminosubstituted quinazolines, we describe the design and synthesis of novel 2,4-disubstituted-thioquinazolines (3–13 and 36), 2-thio-4-amino substituted quinazolines (14–33) and 6-substituted 2,4-diamonsubstituted quinazolines (37–39). The synthesized compounds showed potent antibacterial activity against a panel of Gram-positive, efflux deficient E.coli and Mycobacterium smegmatis. The panel also involved resistant strains including methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, penicillin-resistant Streptococcus pneumoniae, vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus faecalis and vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus faecium, in addition to Mycobacterium smegmatis. The newly synthesized compounds revealed MIC values against the tested strains ranging from 1 to 64 µg/mL with a good safety profile. Most of the 2-thio-4-amino substituted-quinazolines showed significant antimycobacterial activity with the variations at position 2 and 4 offering additional antibacterial activity against the different strains. Compared to previously reported 2,4-diaminosubstituted quinazolines, the bioisosteric replacement of the 2-amino with sulfur offered a successful approach to keep the high antibacterial potency while substantially improving safety profile as indicated by the reduced activity on different cell lines and a lack of hemolytic activity.