In an effort to develop potent new antituberculosis agents that would be effective against both drug-susceptibleand drug-resistant strains of
Mycobacterium tuberculosis, we prepared a novel series of optically active6-nitro-2,3-dihydroimidazo[2,1-
b]oxazoles substituted at the 2-position with various phenoxymethyl groupsand a methyl group and investigated the
in vitro and
in vivo activity of these compounds. Several of thesederivatives showed potent
in vitro and
in vivo activity, and compound
19 (OPC-67683) in particular displayedexcellent
in vitro activity against both drug-susceptible and drug-resistant strains of
M. tuberculosis H
37Rv(MIC = 0.006
g/mL) and dose-dependent and significant
in vivo efficacy at lower oral doses than rifampicinin mouse models infected with
M. tuberculosis Kurono. The synthesis and structure-activity relationshipsof these new compounds are presented.