Conjugation of a 5-nitrofuran-2-oyl moiety to aminoalkylimidazoles produces non-toxic nitrofurans that are efficacious in vitro and in vivo against multidrug-resistant Mycobacterium tuberculosis.

Within the general nitrofuran carboxamide chemotype, chimera derivatives incorporating diversely substituted imidazoles attached via an alkylamino linker were synthesized. Antimycobacterial evaluation against drug-sensitive M. tuberculosis H37Rv strain identified five active druglike compounds which were further profiled against patient-derived M. tuberculosis strains in vitro. One of the compounds displayed promising potent activity (MIC 0.8 μg/mL) against one of such strains otherwise resistant to such first- and second-line TB therapies as streptomycin, isoniazid, rifampicin, ethambutol, kanamycin, ethionamide, capreomycin and amikacin. The compound was shown to possess low toxicity for mice (LD = 900.0 ± 83.96 mg/kg) and to be similarly efficacious to etambutol, in the mouse model of drug-sensitive tuberculosis, and to neurotoxic cycloserine in mice infected with MDR tuberculosis.