Ester-Protected Ethambutol Derivatives

Indianapolis, IN

Ethambutol is a primary antibiotic used to treat tuberculosis (TB), the most deadly infectious disease worldwide. Ethambutol, though, has some serious side-effects including liver damage and inflammation of the optic nerves. Conversion of ethambutol to an ester-protected prodrug could alleviate some of these side-effects and could increase the specificity of the drug for M. tuberculosis. I synthesized 15 ester-protected ethambutol derivatives to determine the toxicity, chemical properties, and biological functions of each derivative. I also analyzed the ability of each ester-protected derivative to act as prodrug. The results of this project provide new insight on how the chemical and biological properties of antibiotics affect their toxicity against TB.