Creating an Antibacterial with in Vivo Efficacy: Synthesis and Characterization of Potent Inhibitors of the Bacterial Cell Division Protein FtsZ with Improved Pharmaceutical Properties

3-Methoxybenzamide (1) is a weak inhibitor of the essential bacterial cell division protein FtsZ. Alkyl derivatives of 1 are potent antistaphylococcal compounds with suboptimal drug-like properties. Exploration of the structure-activity relationships of analogues of these inhibitors led to the identification of potent antistaphylococcal compounds with improved pharmaceutical properties.