Design, synthesis, and evaluation of thiol-activated sources of sulfur dioxide (SO₂) as antimycobacterial agents.

Here, 2,4-dinitrophenylsulfonamides with tunable cysteine-activated SO(2) release profiles with half-lives of SO(2) release varying from 2 to 63 min are reported. N-Benzyl-2,4-dinitrobenzenesulfonamide (6), which is prepared in one step from commercial sources, had a potency (MIC = 0.15 μM) of inhibiting Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) higher than the clinical agent isoniazid (MIC = 0.37 μM).