Thymidylate kinase (TMK) is a potential chemotherapeutic target because it is directly involved in the synthesis of an essential component, thymidine triphosphate, in DNA replication. All reported TMK inhibitors are thymidine analogues, which might retard their development as potent therapeutics due to cell permeability and off-target activity against human TMK. A small molecule hit (1, IC50= 58 μM), which has reasonable inhibition ...