Design and Synthesis of Mimics of the T7-loop of FtsZ

Mimics of the T7-loop of the bacterial cell division protein FtsZ have been designed and synthesized. The design is based on the X-ray cocrystal structure of P. aeruginosa FtsZ:SulA. Fast Rigid Exhaustive Docking (FRED) was employed to select compounds that can mimic the key interacting residues. Bicyclic oxazolidinones 1a–d were selected for further study and synthesized from a key bicyclic aziridine intermediate, which is synthesized from a readily available unsaturated aldehyde and amides derived from α-amino acids.