Prediction of Antifungal Activity of Gemini Imidazolium Compounds

The progress of antimicrobial therapy contributes to the development of strains of fungi resistant to antimicrobial drugs. Since cationic surfactants have been described as good antifungals, we present a SAR study of a novel homologous series of 140 bis-quaternary imidazolium chlorides and analyze them with respect to their biological activity against Candida albicans as one of the major opportunistic pathogens causing a wide spectrum of diseases in human beings. We characterize a set of features of these compounds, concerning their structure, molecular descriptors, and surface active properties. SAR study was conducted with the help of the Dominance-Based Rough Set Approach (DRSA), which involves identification of relevant features and relevant combinations of features being in strong relationship with a high antifungal activity of the compounds. The SAR study shows, moreover, that the antifungal activity is dependent on the type of substituents and their position at the chloride moiety, as well as on the surface active properties of the compounds. We also show that molecular descriptors MlogP, HOMO-LUMO gap, total structure connectivity index, and Wiener index may be useful in prediction of antifungal activity of new chemical compounds.