Mycobacterium tuberculosis Decaprenylphosphoryl-β‑d‑ribose Oxidase Inhibitors: Expeditious Reconstruction of Suboptimal Hits into a Series with Potent in Vivo Activity

Decaprenylphosphoryl-β-d-ribose 2′-epimerase (DprE1) is an essential enzyme in Mycobacterium tuberculosis and has recently been studied as a potential drug target, with inhibitors progressing to clinical studies. Here we describe the identification of a novel series of morpholino-pyrimidine DprE1 inhibitors. These were derived from a phenotypic high-throughput screening (HTS) hit with suboptimal physicochemical properties. Optimization strategies included scaffold-hopping, synthesis, and evaluation of fragments of the lead compounds and property-focused optimization. The resulting optimized compounds had much improved physicochemical properties and maintained enzyme and cellular potency. These molecules demonstrated potent efficacy in an in vivo tuberculosis murine infection model.