Libraries of novel trisubstituted benzimidazoles were created through rational drug design. A good number of these benzimidazoles exhibited promising MIC values in the range of 0.5-6 μg/mL (2-15 μM) for their antibacterial activity against Mtb H37Rv strain. Moreover, five of the lead compounds also exhibited excellent activity against clinical Mtb strains with different drugresistance profiles. All lead compounds do not show appreciable cytotoxicity (IC 50 >200 μM) against Vero cells, which inhibit Mtb FtsZ assembly in a dose dependent manner. The two lead compounds unexpectedly showed enhancement of the GTPase activity of Mtb FtsZ. The result strongly suggests that the increased GTPase activity destabilizes FtsZ assembly leading to efficient inhibition of FtsZ polymerization and filament formation. The TEM and SEM analyses of Mtb FtsZ and Mtb cells, respectively, treated with a lead compound strongly suggest that lead benzimidazoles have a novel mechanism of action on the inhibition of Mtb FtsZ assembly and Zring formation. KeywordsMycobacterium tuberculosis; FtsZ; FtsZ inhibitor; drug-resistant Mtb; GTPase; TEM; SEM Tuberculosis (TB) is one of the leading infectious diseases and remains a major global health problem. According to WHO, 9.2 million new cases and 1.7 million deaths from TB have been reported.1 With the emergence of HIV, TB has become the most common opportunistic infection afflicting patients living with AIDS. There are 0.7 million HIVpositive people infected with TB, contributing to 0.2 million deaths worldwide.1 The lethal combination of TB and HIV is fuelling the TB epidemic in many parts of the world, especially Africa.1 Poor chemotherapeutics and the inadequate administration of drugs have lead to the development of multi-drug resistant TB (MDR-TB),2 treatment of which requires administration of more expensive, second line antibiotics for up to two years. In addition, even more alarming cases of extensively drug resistant strains of TB (XDR-TB) that are resistant to both first and second line drugs have been reported.3 Recent findings by WHO * To whom correspondences should be addressed. Phone 631-632-1339; fax 631-632-7942; iojima@notes.cc.sunysb.edu. Supporting Information Available:Synthetic procedures and the characterization data for new benzimidazole intermediates as well as Mtb FtsZ protein preparation. This material is available free of charge via the Internet at http://pubs.acs.org. NIH Public AccessAuthor Manuscript J Med Chem. Author manuscript; available in PMC 2012 January 13. Consequently, there is a pressing need for the development of novel TB drugs that are effective against both drug sensitive and resistant Mtb strains.FtsZ, a tubulin homologue, is a highly conserved and ubiquitous bacterial cell division protein. Similar to the process of microtubule formation by tubulin, FtsZ polymerizes in a GTP-dependent manner, forming a highly dynamic cytokinetic structure, designated as the Z-ring, at the center of the cell. 4 -5 The recruitment of the other cell division pro...

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The reaction of dodec-11-ene-1,6-diynes or their heteroatom congeners with a hydrosilane catalyzed by Rh(acac)(CO)2 at ambient temperature and pressure of CO gives the corresponding fused 5-7-5 tricyclic products, 5-oxo-1,3a,4,5,7,9-hexahydro-3H-cyclopenta[e]azulenes or their heteroatom congeners, in excellent yields through a unique silicon-initiated cascade carbonylative carbotricyclization (CO-SiCaT) process. It has also been found that the 5-7-5 fused tricyclic products can be obtained from the same type of enediynes and CO through a novel intramolecular [2+2+2+1] cycloaddition process. The characteristics of these two tricyclization processes and the fundamental differences in their reaction mechanisms are discussed. This novel higher-order cycloaddition reaction has also been successfully applied to the tricyclization of undeca-5,10-diyn-1-als, affording the corresponding 5-7-5 fused-ring products bearing a seven-membered lactone moiety. Related [2+2+2] tricyclizations of enediyne and diynal substrates are also discussed. These newly discovered reactions can construct multiple bonds all at once, converting linear starting materials to polycyclic compounds in a single step. Thus, these new processes provide innovative routes to functionalized polycyclic compounds that are useful for the syntheses of natural and unnatural products.

The reaction of a 1,6-enyne with a hydrosilane catalyzed by Rh(acac)(CO)(2), Rh(4)(CO)(12), or Rh(2)Co(2)(CO)(12) under ambient CO atmosphere or N(2) gives 2-methyl-1-silylmethylidene-2-cyclopentane or its heteroatom congener in excellent yield through silylcarbocycization (SiCaC) process. The same reaction, but in the presence of a phosphite such as P(OEt)(3) and P(OPh)(3) under 20 atm of CO, affords the corresponding 2-formylmethyl-1-silylmethylidene-2-cyclopentane or its heteroatom congener with excellent selectivity through carbonylative silylcarbocycization (CO-SiCaC) process. The SiCaC reaction has also been applied to a 1,6-enyne bearing a cyclohexenyl group as the alkene moiety and a 1,7-enyne system. The functionalized five- and six-membered ring systems obtained by these novel cyclization reactions serve as useful and versatile intermediates for the syntheses of natural and unnatural heterocyclic and carbocyclic compounds. Possible mechanisms for the SiCaC and CO-SiCaC reactions as well as unique features of these processes are discussed.