Investigation of antimycobacterial efficacy of new benzimidazole derivatives with halogen residues on rifampicin-resistant mycobacterium tuberculosis complex strains isolated in Adana Regional Tuberculosis Laboratory of The Ministry of Health

Tuberculosis is one of the oldest life-threatening infections. The burden of tuberculosis caused by drug-resistant Mycobacterium tuberculosis is increasing. Despite the increasing resistance to major and minor antibiotics used for treatment in clinical isolates of M. tuberculosis, the inability to produce new antimycobacterial drugs has led to the gradual spread of multi-drug-resistant and extensive drug-resistant strains. In this study, it was aimed to determine the antimycobacterial activity of 3 different benzimidazole derivative compounds on rifampicin resistant tuberculosis strains and reference strain H37Rv, which were isolated from clinical specimens in the Adana Regional Tuberculosis Laboratory of the Ministry of Health, in order to determine their potential roles in the treatment of M. tuberculosis. Antimycobacterial activities of benzimidazole-containing compounds on 35 rifampicin-resistant M. tuberculosis isolates and H37Rv strains were tested in vitro using the BACTEC MGIT 960 system. In addition, the potential of S2 to inhibit InhA enzyme was investigated by molecular docking. As a result of the study, it was determined that only S2 compound showed antimycobacterial activity only against M. tuberculosis H37Rv strain, but not against RIF resistant strains. Antimycobacterial activity of compound S1 and S3 was not observed against both clinical and reference strains. Molecular docking results showed that S2 binds with InhA and thus inhibits it and can exert its antimycobacterial effect. In conclusion, further studies are needed to present the S2 compound as a new agent in the treatment of TB.