Dual-protected amino acid derivatives as new antitubercular agents.

Tuberculosis is an infectious disease with high incidence and growing drug-resistant rates. In an attempt to develop new antitubercular agents, 35 compounds were synthesized, most of them bearing a carbamate and enantiopure amino acid moiety. These compounds had their activity evaluated toward a Mycobacterium tuberculosis strain (ATCC 27294) and cytotoxicity against fibroblast MRC-5 cells (ATCC CCL-171). Three of the prepared derivatives presented a good antimicrobial inhibition and two of them a moderate cytotoxicity. The lipophilicity seems to play a vital role in the cell growth activity, with best results for the derivatives with a higher logP.