Synthesis and in vitro antifungal evaluation of 2-thioalkylaryl-benzimidazoles derivatives against Candida albicans

The aim of this study is to find potent biomolecules against infectious germs. Based on the reactivity of some key positions of the benzimidazole core, the first part of this work consisted of the synthesis of a series of substituted 2-thioalkylaryl-benzimidazoles 3a-d. Then, another series of N -alkyl-2-thioalkylarylbenzimidazoles 5a-d, 7a-c and 9b-c was also prepared from 2-thioalkylaryl-benzimidazoles by substitution on position-1 of benzimidazole core using the corresponding functionalized ethyl. The chemical structures of these compounds are determined by NMR ( 1 H, 13 C) and mass spectrometry. The second part concerned the in vitro antifungal activity evaluation of some of the synthesized compounds on Candida albicans . According to the results of evaluation, four compounds (3b, 3c, 3d and 9c) of the substituted 2-thioalkylaryl-benzimidazoles prove to be potent antifungal agent. Introduction of nitro group (NO 2 ) increased significantly the antifungal activity so that their IMQ is ranging between 0.03 and 0.008 μg (or 333 to 1250 times more efficient than the ketoconazole’s). Keywords : synthesis of 2-thioalkylaryl-benzimidazole, antifungal activity, candida albicans.