Date of Award

2007

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

Department

Chemistry

First Advisor

Ali U. Shaikh, Ph.D.

Abstract

Sulfonamides are synthetic, wide-spectrum, antibiotics that find current therapeutic applications in the treatment of urinary tract infections, nocardiosis, and toxoplasmosis. Rapid development of bacterial resistance to this class of antimicrobial agents has obligated the need for synthesis of new sulfonamide derivatives. N 1 substitution with heterocyclic moieties produced variable antibacterial efficacies and their structure activity relationships were fairly established. However, para-amino (the N of which is designated as N 4 ) sulfonamide derivatives are less commonly studied. In this research we have selected a series of para-amino sulfonamide derivatives. Since redox potentials are important in determining the physiological activity of drugs, we have investigated the interrelationship between the electrochemical properties viz. oxidation and reduction peak potentials with their antibacterial efficacies and structural features. Our studies revealed that reduction/oxidation peak potentials of the sulfonamide derivatives are not good indicators of bacterial efficacy of these compounds. The imine group present in most of the derivatives used in this study along with differences in the N 4 and N 1 heterocyclic substituents is the most probable causes for this lack of correlation. It is interesting to note that none of the furyl, indol or pyrrol derivatives were antimicrobially active while, hydroxynapthyl and thienyl derivatives were effective against Gram positive bacteria and only moderately effective against Gram negative bacteria.

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