Synthesis, spectroscopic characterization and computational chemical study of 5-cyano-2-thiouracil derivatives as potential antimicrobial agents

Abstract

A series of 5-cyano-2-thiouracil derivatives, containing diverse hydrophobic groups in the 2-, 4- and 6-positions, were synthesized through one pot reaction of thiophene 2-carboxaldehyde, ethylcyanoacetate and thiourea using classic reflux-based method as well as microwave-assisted methods. Such prepared compounds were reacted with different electrophilic reagents to synthesize potent anti-microbial agents, e.g. 1,3,4-thiadiazinopyrimidine, hydrazide and triazolopyrimidine derivatives (compounds 4a-e, 9 and 10–12) respectively. The density functional theory (DFT) was then applied to explore the structural and electronic characteristics of these materials. It is found that compound 12 exhibited the highest antibacterial and antifungal activity against C. Albicans showing six-fold increasing biological affinity compared to that of Colitrimazole drug with MIC values 7.8 and 49 μg/mL, respectively. All the synthesized compounds have been characterized based on their elemental analyses and spectral data. Such compounds can be submitted to in vivo antimicrobial studies in future works.