Molecular docking, design, synthesis and antifungal activity study of novel triazole derivatives

The incidence of life-threatening fungal infections has dramatically increased for decades. In order to develop novel antifungal agents, two series of (2R,3R)-1-(1H-1,2,4-triazol-1-yl)-2-(2,4-difluorophenyl)-3-(N-substitutied)-2-butanols (3a-o, 5a-f, 8a-u), which were analogues of voriconazole, were designed, synthesized and characterized by ¹H NMR, ¹³C NMR and HRMS. The MIC₈₀ values showed that the target compounds 3a-o indicated better activities than fluconazole on three important fungal pathogens except for 3i. Significant activity of compounds 3d, 3k, 3n, 3m and 3o was observed on the Aspergillus fumigatus strain (MIC₈₀ range: 1-0.125 μg/ml). Especially, compound 3k had strong activity to inhibit the growth of ten fungal pathogens. But it didn't exhibit good activity in in vivo value. Molecular docking experiments demonstrated that 3k possessed superior affinity with target enzyme by strong hydrogen bond from morpholine ring.