New MraY AA Inhibitors with an Aminoribosyl Uridine Structure and an Oxadiazole.

New inhibitors of the bacterial transferase MraY from Aquifex aeolicus (MraY _AA ), based on the aminoribosyl uridine central core of known natural MraY inhibitors, have been designed to generate interaction of their oxadiazole linker with the key amino acids (H324 or H325) of the enzyme active site, as observed for the highly potent inhibitors carbacaprazamycin, muraymycin D2 and tunicamycin. A panel of ten compounds was synthetized notably thanks to a robust microwave-activated one-step sequence for the synthesis of the oxadiazole ring that involved the O -acylation of an amidoxime and subsequent cyclization. The synthetized compounds, with various hydrophobic substituents on the oxadiazole ring, were tested against the MraY _AA transferase activity. Although with poor antibacterial activity, nine out of the ten compounds revealed the inhibition of the MraY _AA activity in the range of 0.8 µM to 27.5 µM.
Competing Interests: The authors declare no conflict of interest.