Benzene Amide Ether Scaffold is Active against Non-replicating and Intracellular .

New drugs to treat tuberculosis which target intractable bacterial populations are required to develop shorter and more effective treatment regimens. The benzene amide ether scaffold has activity against intracellular , but low activity against extracellular, actively replicating . We determined that these molecules have bactericidal activity against non-replicating but not actively replicating bacteria. Exposure to compounds depleted ATP levels in non-replicating bacteria and increased the oxygen consumption rate; a subset of molecules led to the accumulation of intrabacterial reactive oxygen species. A comprehensive screen of strains identified a number of under-expressing strains as more sensitive to compounds under replicating conditions including QcrA and QcrB hypomorphs. We determined the global gene expression profile after compound treatment for both replicating and nutrient-starved . We saw compound-dependent changes in the expression of genes involved in energy metabolism under both conditions. Taken together, our data suggest that the scaffold targets respiration in .