Design, synthesis, and antimalarial evaluation of thiazole-derived amino acids

A series of thiazole-derived N-Boc amino acids were synthesized and evaluated as targeted potential antimalarials against plasmepsins II enzyme of malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum. All the compounds showed moderate to good activity. Compounds 3f and 3g were found to have highest the 50% inhibitory concentration (IC(50)) values (3.45 mu M and 4.89 mu M, respectively) against Plasmodium falciparum. The compounds docked to the active site of plasmepsin II. Most of the compounds were found to interact with the catalytic amino acids ASP34 and ASP214 of plasmepsin II. A good correlation was observed between binding energy and antiparasitic activity of the thiazole derivatives.