Repurposing Old Drugs: Substituted Benzodiazepines as New Antibacterial Agents

Abstract

This project aims to develop a greater understanding of how old drugs can be repurposed into new and exciting therapeutic areas. In particular, developing an understanding of the antibacterial mode of action exerted by modified benzodiazepines possessing unique fluoropyridines will be explored.

The work described in this thesis was mainly focused on the synthesis of a library of substituted benzodiazepines containing the fluoropyridine moiety and the biological investigation of these compounds. We present an effective synthetic route to the core benzodiazepine framework which was later attached to fluoropyridines. The target benzodiazepines substituted by Cl, Br and F on the aryl rings were synthesized and isolated successfully. Except the N1 substituted benzodiazepine, other target compounds all show great activity to a host of bacteria.