Design, synthesis and evaluation of hydrazine and acyl hydrazone derivatives of 5-pyrrolidin-2-one as antifungal agents.

Twenty-eight 5-pyrrolidine-2-ones decorated by hydrazine or acyl hydrazones groups have been designed, synthesized and evaluated as antifungal agents on a panel of twelve fungal strains and three non albicans candida yeasts species which have demonstrated reduced susceptibility to commonly used antifungal drugs. Half of the target compounds exhibited good to high antifungal activities on at least one strain with MIC lower than the control antifungal agent - hymexazol or ketoconazole. 5-Arylhydrazino-pyrrolidin-2-ones were found active and the -NH-NH- linker proved to be essential to maintain the antifungal potential. Compound 2a is a broad-spectrum antifungal, active on 60% of the tested strains. Replacing the hydrazine linker by an acylhydrazone one narrowed the spectrum of activity but pyroglutamylaryl hydrazones, mainly aromatic ones, exhibited good activity, adequate "fungicide-like" properties and were devoted of cytotoxicity.