Design, Synthesis and Evaluation of Thiourea Derivatives as Antimicrobial and Antiviral Agents

Background: The development of drug-resistant by bacteria appears rapidly and thus making the effectiveness of antibiotics severely limited. Methods: A series of thiourea derivatives was synthesized, characterized and evaluated for their in vitro antibacterial, antifungal and antiviral activities. Results: Structures of the newly synthesized compounds were confirmed by elemental and spectral analysis. The biological results showed that some of the target compounds displayed comparable antimicrobial and antiviral activities with reference drugs. Structure-activity relationship studies revealed that the ortho- chloro or fluoro substituted phenyl at Ar1 and substituted pyridinyl at Ar2 positions of the thiourea nucleus are essential for their in vitro antimicrobial and anti-HIV activity. In particular, compounds 8 and 10 showed better activity against the tested bacteria, fungi and viral strains than other synthesized PET derivatives reported in the present study. Conclusion: These results provide an encouraging lead that could be used for the development of new potent antiviral and antimicrobial agents.