Click-tailed benzenesulfonamides as potent bacterial carbonic anhydrase inhibitors for targeting Mycobacterium tuberculosis and Vibrio cholerae

A series of 1,2,3-triazole-bearing benzenesulfonamides was assessed for the inhibition of carbonic anhydrases (CA, EC 4.2.1.1) from bacteria Vibrio cholerae (VchCAα and VchCAβ) and Mycobacterium tuberculosis (β-mtCA3). Growing resistance phenomena against existing antimicrobial drugs are globally spreading and highlight a urgent need of agents endowed with alternative mechanisms of action. Two global WHO strategies aim to reduce cholera deaths by 90% and eradicate the tuberculosis epidemic by 2030. The derivatives here reported represent interesting leads towards the optimization of new antibiotic agents showing excellent inhibitory efficiency and selectivity for the target CAs over the human (h) off-target isoform hCA I. In detail, the first subset of derivatives potently inhibits VchCAα in a low nanomolar range (KIs between 0.72 and 22.6 nM). Compounds of a second subset, differing from the first one for the position of the spacer between benzenesulfonamide and triazole, preferentially inhibit VchCAβ (KIs in the range 54.8-102.4 nM) and β-mtCA3 (KIs in the range 28.2-192.5 nM) even more than the clinically used AAZ, used as the standard.