New Mercaptoacetamide Derivatives: Synthesis and Assessment as Antimicrobial and Antimycobacterial Agents

During last few years, the frightening elevation of bacterial resistance was accompanied by dramatic decline in recent treatments of infectious diseases, which became a point of anxiety for healthcare industries. MDR and XDR strains of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) result in the tuberculosis. In this regard, herein, a series of new mercaptoacetamide derivatives were synthesized via multipot synthetic pathway and the rationale was the appraisal of bioactivity in compact heteronuclei and their assessment as potential antimicrobial and antimycobacterial agents against virulent strain of Mtb, H37Ra for structure–activity relationship (SAR) studies. The inhibition zones of compounds 4c and 4e were found to be nearest to that of standard drug Ciprofloxacin, while compounds 4h and 4j were mild to moderately active against Gram positive bacteria (Staphylococcus aureus, Streptococus pneumonia) and Gram negative bacteria (Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Salmonella typhimurium and Escherichia coli). MIC90 assays indicated that new mercaptoacetamides did not exhibit in vitro activity against Mtb in contrast to Rifampicin and Streptomycin, first-line antimycobacterial chemotherapeutic agents. According to the present study, it was concluded that mercaptoacetamides of the new series succeeded as antimicrobial agents but could not develop as potential lead compounds against Mtb when tested in concentrations of 50, 25, 12.5 and 6.25 μg/mL.