A selection of 76 nitroheterocycles and related compounds from our in-house compound library was screened in vitro against the parasite Trypanosoma brucei rhodesiense, causative agent of human African trypanosomiasis (HAT). The unspecific cytotoxicity of the compounds was also evaluated against rat myoblast L6-cells to measure the selectivity of the compounds towards the parasite. This screening revealed some preliminary structure-activity relationships (SAR) among the series, and six hit compounds showing interesting activity (IC 50 ≤ 10 µM) and fair selectivity (SI > 17).The 7-nitroquinoxalin-2-one and 5-nitroindazole scaffold derivatives 58 and 35, respectively, are particularly interesting because of their established oral bioavailability in mice. These hits represent interesting starting points for a medicinal project aimed at identifying the SAR behind this class of compounds. The NTD status of sleeping sickness is highlighted by the fact that 3 out of the 4 drugs approved for its treatment (i.e., pentamidine, melarsoprol, suramin) were discovered more that 60 years ago. The other drug, eflornithine, was approved in 1990 for the We report here the in vitro screening against T. b. rhodesiense (strain STIB900) of a selection of 76 nitro-derivatives of nitrogenated heterocycles (e.g., nitrocinnolines, nitroindoles, nitroindazoles and nitroquinoxalinones) and related compounds 13,19,[21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30] 31 using the Alamar blue growth inhibition assay. 32 Their cytotoxicity against mammalian L6-cells was also determined in vitro. This allowed the calculation of a selectivity index Compounds from the hydrazide series (Table 1) had IC 50 values against T. brucei in the range 5.5 to > 400 µM. Seven compounds showed IC 50 < 50 µM (3,11,16,(17)(18)(19)(20) but only three of those (3, 11, and 20) were selective for the parasite with SI of 8.3, 13.7, and 13, respectively. Of note is the effect of replacing the 6-halogen atom (Cl, F) by an ethoxy group in 20; this reduced significantly the cytotoxicity (13-to 57-fold) with only a two-fold decrease in antitrypanosomal activity with respect to 18 and 19.[insert Table 1 here] 5-Nitroindazolols derivatives with free OH group (Table 2) [insert Table 2 here]Among indazolinone derivatives (Table 3) [insert Table 3 here]The quinoxalin-2-one scaffold gave the best antitrypanosomal compounds with 6 molecules (57, 58, 59, 60, 62, 65) having IC 50 values < 15 µM and SI values in the range 3.6-39.7 (Table 4). The N1,N4-dimethyl compound 58 and the fused pyrrolidine derivative 65 were the most active compounds of this screening (IC 50 = 3.6 and 2.7 µM, respectively The bisnitroindazole derivatives were poorly active against T. brucei (Table 5). The sole compound with interesting activity was the urea 76 which was one of the best hits of this study with IC 50 = 7.1 µM and SI > 23.6.[insert Tables 4 and 5 here]The discovery of fexinidazole as a potential clinical candidate for the oral treatment of both stages of sleeping sickness has led, in the last ...