Discovery of 2-iminobenzimidazoles as a new class of trypanothione reductase inhibitor by high-throughput screening

A high-throughput screening campaign of a library of 100,000 lead-like compounds identified 2-iminobenzimidazoles (L) as a novel class of trypanothione reductase inhibitors. These 2-iminobenzimidazoles display potent trypanocidal activity against Trypanosoma brucei rhodesiense, do not inhibit closely related human glutathione reductase and have low cytotoxicity against mammalian cells.