The current misuse of antibiotics in the treatment of infectious diseases of different origins, including bacteria and fungi, has triggered the development of resistance by microorganisms to common therapies. As a consequence, the synthesis of new compounds with analogous activities to the commercial antimicrobials has become of great importance. Previous studies have shown that different azoles including pyrazoles and benzimidazoles with different structural characteristics can act as antibacterial or antifungal drugs. In this work, different trifluoromethyl functionalized benzimidazoles and benzimidazole iodine salts were synthetized and tested against clinical strains of Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus, Candida spp and Cryptococcus gatti, in order to explore the effect of these modifications in their biological activity. These strains were shown to be resistant to common antibiotics such as ketoconazole and fluconazole for fungi and gentamicin for bacteria. These results suggest that some of the modified benzimidazoles have great potential as antibacterial and antifungal agents. Specifically, trifluoromethyl functionalized benzimidazole iodine salts inhibit the grow of Candida spp and Cryptococcus gatti and in a lesser extend inhibit the grow of Staphylococcus aureus. Further studies will be performed in order to determine the MIC in reference and clinical strains.

Benzimidazole derivatives as new potential antibacterial and antifungal agents

2019 Fall National Meeting

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