The emergence of multidrug-resistant pathogens necessitates the search for new antibiotics acting on previously unexplored targets. Nicotinate mononucleotide adenylyltransferase of the NadD family, an essential enzyme of NAD biosynthesis in most bacteria, was selected as a target for structure-based inhibitor development. To this end, the inventors have identified small molecule compounds that inhibit bacterial target enzymes by interacting with a novel inhibitory binding site on the enzyme while having no effect on functionally equivalent human enzymes.
form, pyrazinoic acid, have been found. We have designed and prepared 3-(phenyl-carbamoyl)pyrazine-2-carboxylic acids as more lipophilic derivatives of pyrazinoic acid. We also prepared methyl and propyl derivatives as prodrugs with further increased lipophilicity. Antimycobacterial, antibacterial and antifungal growth inhibiting activity was investigated in all prepared compounds. 3-[(4-Nitrophenyl