Alkoxyamines Designed as Potential Drugs against and Parasites.

Malaria and schistosomiasis are major infectious causes of morbidity and mortality in the tropical and sub-tropical areas. Due to the widespread drug resistance of the parasites, the availability of new efficient and affordable drugs for these endemic pathologies is now a critical public health issue. In this study, we report the design, the synthesis and the preliminary biological evaluation of a series of alkoxyamine derivatives as potential drugs against and parasites. The compounds ()-, ()-, and , having IC values in nanomolar range against drug-resistant strains, but also five other alkoxyamines, inducing the death of all adult worms of in only 1 h, can be considered as interesting chemical starting points of the series for improvement of the activity, and further structure activity, relationship studies. Moreover, investigation of the mode of action and the rate constants for C-ON bond homolysis of new alkoxyamines is reported, showing a possible alkyl radical mediated biological activity. A theoretical chemistry study allowed us to design new structures of alkoxyamines in order to improve the selectivity index of these drugs.