MurA is an intracellular bacterial enzyme that is essential for peptidoglycan biosynthesis, and is therefore an important target for antibacterial drug discovery. We report the synthesis, in silico studies and extensive structure–activity relationships of a series of quinazolinone-based inhibitors of MurA from Escherichia coli. 3-Benzyloxyphenylquinazolinones showed promising inhibitory potencies against MurA, in the low micromolar range, with an IC₅₀ of 8 µM for the most potent derivative (58). Furthermore, furan-substituted quinazolinones (38, 46) showed promising antibacterial activities, with MICs from 1 µg/mL to 8 µg/mL, concomitant with their MurA inhibitory potencies. These data represent an important step towards the development of novel antimicrobial agents to combat increasing bacterial resistance.

MurA是肽聚糖生物合成必不可少的细胞内细菌酶，因此是抗菌药物发现的重要靶标。我们报告了一系列来自大肠杆菌的MurA的基于喹唑啉酮的抑制剂的合成，计算机模拟研究和广泛的结构-活性关系。3-苯甲氧基苯基喹唑啉酮类化合物在低微摩尔范围内显示出对MurA的抑制作用，最有效的衍生物的IC ₅₀为8 µM（58）。此外，呋喃基取代的喹唑啉酮（38，46）的抗菌活性令人振奋，MIC浓度从1 µg / mL到8 µg / mL，并具有其MurA抑制能力。这些数据代表了开发新型抗菌剂以对抗不断增加的细菌耐药性的重要一步。