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The antibiotic crisis is associated with the appearance of multidrug resistant (MDR) pathogens, which has caused severe bacterial infections and imposed a huge burden on modern society. Therefore, there is an urgent need to develop new antibacterial drugs with novel mechanism of action. Here we designed and synthesized three series of benzoxazolone, oxazolopyridinone and 3-(2-hydroxyphenyl)hydantoin derivatives and evaluated their activity as novel quorum sensing (QS) inhibitors. We found that benzoxazolone and oxazolopyridinone derivatives had promising QS inhibitory activity in the minimum inhibitory concentration, pyocyanin and rhamnolipid inhibition assays. In particular, A10 and B20 at 256 μg/mL not only suppressed pyocyanin production regulated by QS in P. aeruginosa PAO1 by 36.55% and 46.90%, respectively, but also showed the strongest rhamnolipid inhibitory activity with the IC

Multidrug-resistant bacterial infections have become an important cause of clinical death in the twenty-first century. Much effort has been made to overcome this challenge. The discovery of novel antimicrobial compounds, as well as the rational use of antibacterial drugs with different structure types and mechanisms, is helping to deal with bacterial resistance. Currently, pyrimidine-containing agents are the major areas of new antibacterial drug discovery. Given their good activities and diverse mechanisms of action, many pyrimidine-containing heterocyclic compounds have become the focus of interest for many scientists. In addition, pyrimidine structure is an important part of many endogenous substances, which is an advantage that allows pyrimidine derivatives to interact with genetic materials, enzymes and other biopolymeric substances in the cell. Scientists have focused on the discovery and structural optimization of pyrimidine derivatives, which has resulted in the discovery of many novel pyrimidine derivatives with intriguing profiles. Herein we summarize the therapeutic potentials of pyrimidine compounds that are promising for antimicrobial applications over the last decade. In particular, the relationships between the structures of modified pyrimidines and their antimicrobial activity are systematically discussed.

At present, diseases such as obesity, type Ⅱ diabetes and cancer have brought serious health problems, which are closely related to mTOR pathway. 70 kDa ribosomal protein S6 kinase (p70S6K), as a significant downstream effector of mTOR, mediates protein synthesis, RNA processing, glucose homeostasis, cell growth and apoptosis. Inhibiting the function of p70S6K can reduce the risk of obesity which helps to treat dyslipidemia, enhance insulin sensitivity, and extend the life span of mammals. Therefore, p70S6K has become a potential target for the treatment of these diseases. So far, except for the first p70S6K specific inhibitor PF-4708671 developed by Pfizer and LY2584702 developed by Lilai, all of them are in preclinical research. This paper briefly introduces the general situation of p70S6K and reviews their inhibitors in recent years, which are mainly classified into two categories: natural compounds and synthetic compounds. In particular, their inhibitory activities, structure-activity relationships (SARs) and mechanisms are highlighted.

Pre-synthesized δ-CF3-δ-aryl-disubstituted para-quinone methides bearing δ-substituents were identified as isolable and storable substrates for 1,6-arylation reactions. A broad range of electron-rich arenes and heteroarenes participated in the arylation process, furnishing a wide array of unsymmetrical CF3-substituted triarylmethanes in high efficiency. The mild and expeditious protocol exhibited broad scopes of both arene and para-quinone methide components.

Diarylmethyl alkynes with chirality at the propargylic position are privileged building blocks in many biologically important molecules. However, catalytic asymmetric access to such moieties has remained underdeveloped. Herein, we described a one-pot redox deracemization of diarylmethyl alkynes. By using MnO2 as a mild, inexpensive, and environmentally benign oxidant, combined with chiral phosphoric acid catalyzed asymmetric reduction, deracemization of diarylmethyl alkynes proceeds efficiently with high levels of chemo- and enantioselectivities. The generality of the strategy is further illustrated by redox deracemization of diarylmethyl alkenes.

Refereed/Peer-reviewed A series of novel benzo[h]chromene compounds were designed, synthesized and evaluated for their biological activity as AcrB inhibitors. The compounds were assessed for their ability to potentiate the effect of antibiotics. Compounds with antibiotic-potentiating effects were then evaluated for inhibition of Nile Red efflux, and for off target effects including activity on the outer and inner bacterial membranes and toxicity. Six compounds were identified to reduce the MIC values of at least one of the tested antibiotics by at least 4-fold, and further reduced the MICs in the presence of a membrane permeabilizer. The identified compounds were also able to inhibit Nile Red efflux at concentrations between 50 μM and 200 μM. The compounds did not disrupt the bacterial outer membrane nor display toxicity in a nematode model (Caenorhabditis elegans). The 4-methoxyphenoxy)propoxy derivative compound G6 possessed the most potent antibacterial potentiation with erythromycin by 8-foldeven without the presence of a membrane permeabilizer. Furthermore, H6, G6, G10 and G11 completely abolished the Nile Red efflux at a concentration of 50 μM. The 3,4-dihydro-2H-benzo[h]chromen-5-yl)(morpholino)methanone core appears to be a promising chemical skeleton to be further studied in the discovery of more putative AcrB inhibitors.

Macrolides are widely prescribed in clinic to treat various respiratory tract infections. However, due to their inappropriate use, the prevalence of macrolide-resistant strains among clinical isolates has become a concern for public health. Therefore, novel macrolides skeleton structures against resistant pathogens are badly needed. Thus, three series of novel 15-membered 11a-azahomoclarithromycin derivatives (series A-C) with the 1, 2, 3-triazole side chain were designed and synthesized through creatively opening the ring of clarithromycin (CAM), expanding the ring properly and introducing a suitable side chain of 1, 2, 3-triazole at the C12 and C13 positions, and evaluated for their antibacterial activity. The antibacterial results indicated that compounds 38b, 38l and 38v possessed strong antibacterial activity against Staphylococcus aureus ATCC25923 (0.25 μg/mL) and Bacillus subtilis ATCC9372 (0.25 μg/mL). Furthermore, compounds 9e and 38g were found to exhibit promising potent activity (8 μg/mL) against Streptococcus pneumonia AB11 expressing the ermB and mefA genes. In addition, the determination of minimum bactericidal concentration (MBC) indicated that the most promising compounds 38b, 38l, 38v, 9e and 38g were excellent bacteriostatic agents. The bactericidal curve showed that 9e exhibited antibacterial activity through bacteriostatic mechanism. Finally, 38b, 38l and 38v were confirmed to be non-toxic to MCF-7 breast cancer cells up to a concentration of 32 μg/mL in preliminary cytotoxicity assay. In summary, 38b, 38l, 38v, 9e and 38g can be served as lead compounds to provide a new perspective for further structural optimization.

The spread of infections caused by multidrug-resistant (MDR) pathogens, such as methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and vancomycin-resistant S. aureus (VRSA), has created a need for new antibiotics with novel mechanisms of action. The bacterial division protein FtsZ has been identified as a novel drug target that can be exploited clinically. As part of an ongoing effort to develop FtsZ-targeting antibacterial agents, we describe herein the design, synthesis and bioactivity of six series of novel 1,3,4-oxadiazol-2-one-containing, 1,2,4-triazol-3-one-containing and pyrazolin-5-one-containing benzamide derivatives. Among them, compound A14 was found to be the most potent antibacterial agent, much better than clinical drugs such as ciprofloxacin, linezolid and erythromycin against all the tested gram-positive strains, particularly methicillin-resistant, penicillin-resistant and clinical isolated S. aureus. Subsequent studies on biological activities and docking analyses proved that A14 functioned as an effective compound targeting FtsZ. Preliminary SAR indicated a general direction for further optimization of these novel analogues. Taken together, this research provides a promising chemotype for developing newer FtsZ-targeting bactericidal agents.

Background: The 26S proteasome is a proteolytic complex of multimeric protease, which operates at the executive end of the Ubiquitin-Proteasome System (UPS) and degrades the polyubiquitylated proteins. Methods: After a brief introduction of 26S proteasome and Ubiquitin-Proteasome System (UPS), this review focuses on the structure and function of the 26S proteasome in intracellular protein level regulation. Then, physiological regulation mechanisms and processes are elaborated. In addition, the advantages and defects of approved 26S proteasome inhibitors were discussed. Finally, we summarized the novel peptide 26S proteasome inhibitors according to their structural classifications, highlighting their design strategies, inhibitory activity and Structure-Activity Relationships (SARs). Results: Cellular function maintenance relies on the proteasome metabolizing intracellular proteins to control intracellular protein levels, which is especially important for cancer cells to survive and proliferate. In primary tumors, proteasomes had a higher level and more potent activity. Currently, the approved small peptide inhibitors have proved their specific 26S proteasome inhibitory effects and considerable antitumor activities, but with obvious defects. Increasingly, novel peptide inhibitors are emerging and possess promising values in cancer therapy. Conclusion: Overall, the 26S proteasome is an efficient therapeutic target and novel 26S proteasome inhibitors hold potency for cancer therapy.

Abstract: Cancer, especially malignant tumor, is a serious threat to people's life and health. It is recognized as an enormous challenge in the 21st century. Continuous efforts are needed to overcome this problem. Pyrazolopyridine nucleus, similar in structure to purine, shows a variety of biological activities, which is mainly attributed to the antagonistic nature towards the natural purines in many biological processes. This has aroused enormous attention for many researchers. At present, a large number of new chemical entities containing pyrazolopyridine nucleus have been found as anticancer agents. In this review we summarize novel pyrazolopyridine-containing derivatives with biological activities. Furthermore, we outline the relationships between the structures of variously modified pyrazolopyridines and their anticancer activity.

With the increasing incidence of antibiotic resistance, new antibacterial agents having novel mechanisms of action hence are in an urgent need to combat infectious diseases caused by multidrug-resistant (MDR) pathogens. Four novel series of substituted 9-arylalkyl-10-methylacridinium derivatives as FtsZ inhibitors were designed, synthesized and evaluated for their antibacterial activities against various Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria. The results demonstrated that they exhibited broad-spectrum activities with substantial efficacy against MRSA and VRE, which were superior or comparable to the berberine, sanguinarine, linezolid, ciprofloxacin and vancomycin. In particular, the most promising compound 15f showed rapid bactericidal properties, which avoid the emergence of drug resistance. However, 15f showed no inhibitory effect on Gram-negative bacteria but biofilm formation study gave possible answers. Further target identification and mechanistic studies revealed that 15f functioned as an effective FtsZ inhibitor to alter the dynamics of FtsZ self-polymerization, which resulted in termination of the cell division and caused cell death. Further cytotoxicity and animal studies demonstrated that 15f not only displayed efficacy in a murine model of bacteremia in vivo, but also no significant hemolysis to mammalian cells. Overall, this compound with novel skeleton could serve as an antibacterial lead of FtsZ inhibitor for further evaluation of drug-likeness.

Bacterial infections are still the main significant problem of public health in the world, and their elimination will greatly rely on the discovery of antibacterial drugs. In the processes of our searching for novel macrolide derivatives with excellent activity against sensitive and resistant bacteria, three series of novel N11-, C12- and C13-substituted 15-membered homo-aza-clarithromycin derivatives were designed and synthesized as Series A, B and C by creatively opening the lactone ring of clarithromycin (CAM), introducing various 4-substituted phenyl-1H-1,2,3-triazole side chains at the N11, C12 or C13 position of CAM and macrolactonization. The results from their in vitro antibacterial activity demonstrated that compounds 20c, 20d and 20f displayed not only the most potent activity against S. aureus ATCC25923 with the MIC values of 0.5, 0.5 and 0.5 µg/mL, but also greatly improved activity against B. subtilis ATCC9372 with the MIC values of less than or equal to 0.25, 0.25 and 0.25 µg/mL, respectively. In particular, compound 11g exhibited the strongest antibacterial effectiveness against all the tested resistant bacterial strains and had well balanced activity with the MIC values of 4–8 µg/mL. Further study on minimum bactericidal concentration and kinetics confirmed that compound 11g possessed a bacteriostatic effect on bacterial proliferation. Moreover, the results of molecular docking revealed an potential additional binding force between compound 11g and U790 in addition to the normal binding force of macrolide skeleton, which may explain why this compound performed the most potent activity against resistant bacteria. The results of cytotoxic assay indicated that compounds 20c, 20d and 20f were non-toxic to human breast cancer MCF-7 cells at its effective antibacterial concentration.

Considering the high cost of the production of semaglutide, which is currently the most promising antidiabetic drug especially for the treatment of type 2 diabetes mellitus, a new synthetic route of semaglutide production that possesses excellent yield and high purity is of vital importance. Herein, we reported a newly developed synthetic route of semaglutide that is simple and efficient, based on a soluble hydrophobic-support-assisted liquid-phase synthetic method by applying Alloc-chemistry to the synthesis of the main chain peptide and side chain peptide of semaglutide. With careful optimization of the reaction conditions and innovative strategy of post-synthetic treatments, the total yield and purity of the crude semaglutide was improved satisfactorily.

The treatment of cancer has been one of the most significant challenges for the medical field. Further research on the signal transduction pathway of tumor cells is driving the rapid development of antitumor agents targeting tyrosine kinases. However, most of the currently approved tyrosine kinase inhibitors based on the "single target/single drug" design are becoming less and less effective in the treatment of complex, heterogeneous, and multigenic cancers; this also results in resistance to chemotherapy. In contrast, multitargeted tyrosine kinase inhibitors (MT-TKIs) can effectively block multiple pathways of intracellular signal transduction. Therefore, they have therapeutic advantages over single-targeted inhibitors and have become a hotspot in antitumor drug research in recent years. This minireview summarizes recent advances in the discovery of MT-TKIs based on their chemical structures. In particular, we describe the kinase inhibitory and antitumor activity of promising compounds, as well as their structure - activity relationships (SARs).

A series of novel 11-O-aralkylcarbamoyl-3-O-descladinosylclarithromycin derivatives were designed, synthesized and evaluated for their in vitro antibacterial activity. The results showed that the majority of the target compounds displayed potent activity against erythromycin-susceptible S. pyogenes, erythromycin-resistant S. pneumoniae A22072 expressing the mef gene and S. pneumoniae AB11 expressing the mef and erm genes. Besides, most of the target compounds exhibited moderate activity against erythromycin-susceptible S. aureus ATCC25923 and B. subtilis ATCC9372. In particular, compounds 11a, 11b, 11c, 11e, 11f and 11h were found to exert favorable antibacterial activity against erythromycin-susceptible S. pyogenes with the MIC values of 0.015–0.125 μg/mL. Furthermore, compounds 10e, 11a, 11b and 11c showed superior activity against erythromycin-resistant S. pneumoniae A22072 with the MIC values of 0.25–0.5 μg/mL. Additionally, compound 11c was the most effective against all the erythromycin-resistant S. pneumoniae strains (A22072, B1 and AB11), exhibiting 8-, 8- and 32-fold more potent activity than clarithromycin, respectively.

Background Histone acetylation is an essential approach of post-translational modification (PTM) and a significant component of epigenetic regulation that is mediated by Bromodomainscontaining protein (BRDs). In recent years, many researchers have found that a variety of malignancy, inflammatory and other diseases occurrences and developments are associated with BRD4 expression disorders or dysfunction. Meanwhile, many inhibitors of the extra-terminal (BET) family have been reported in many papers. Objective This review summarized those newly found BET inhibitors, their mechanism of action and bioactivity. Secondly, those compounds were mainly classified based on their structures and their structure-activity relationship information was discussed. Beyond that, every compound's design strategy was pointed out. Results and conclusion Herein, the recent advances reported were reviewed for discovering more excellent small molecule inhibitors. Currently, in addition to compound 4, compounds 7, 22 and 90, have also been into the clinical trial stage. In the view of the outstanding performance of BET inhibitors in anti-tumor, anti-inflammatory and anti-drug resistance, we believe that more and more BET inhibitors will become the new epigenetic therapy for cancer, inflammation and autoimmune disease in clinical practice in the near future.

The death caused by pathogenic bacteria has always been a severe threat to mankind. The prevalence of drug resistance among bacteria underscores an urgent goal for new antibacterial agents with novel mode of action. Here we first designed and synthesized a class of benzothiazolyl-5-methylphenanthridium derivatives and evaluated their antibacterial activity. On this basis, we further designed and synthesized another class of novel indolyl-5-methylphenanthridium derivatives by optimizing the benzothiazolyl-5-methylphenanthridium core and evaluated their antibacterial activity targeting the bacterial cell division protein FtsZ. The results showed that the indolyl-5-methylphenanthridium derivatives had greatly improved activity against various drug-resistant bacterial strains including methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus and vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus (VRE). Among them, compound C5 displayed excellent antibacterial activity against susceptible (MIC = 1 μg/mL), methicillin-resistant and clinical isolated S. aureus (MIC = 2 μg/mL). With low hemolytic activity towards mice red blood cells, C5 exhibited good antibacterial effect in vivo in preliminary pharmacodynamic assay. More importantly, C5 was difficult to induce bacterial resistance. Further mechanism studies proved that C5 could inhibit bacterial cell division by promoting FtsZ polymerization, leading to disorderly polymerization and disordered knots. Therefore, our findings suggest that this class of novel indolyl-5-methylphenanthridium derivatives are promising for future antibacterial agents.

Antimicrobial peptides are an important part of the natural immune system. According to reports, the antimicrobial peptide piscidins have a very significant therapeutic effect, among which TP4, a member of the Nile tilapia family, has not only antimicrobial activity, but also anticancer, immune regulation and promoting wound healing. TP4 has become the most valuable candidate for commercial applications. Therefore, in order to facilitate the follow-up research, it is very important to develop the synthetic route of TP4 with excellent yield and high purity. In this paper, we reported a newly developed synthetic route for TP4, which was a liquid phase synthetic method based on a soluble hydrophobic-support-assisted method. This synthetic method was simple and effective with satisfactory yield and high purity, and was not controlled by scale in the production process.

A novel series of 3-O-descladinosyl-3-keto-clarithromycin derivatives, including 11-O-carbamoyl-3-O-descladinosyl-3-keto-clarithromycin derivatives and 2′,9(S)-diaryl-3-O-descladinosyl-3-keto-clarithromycin derivatives, were designed, synthesized and evaluated for their in vitro antibacterial activity. Among them, some derivatives were found to have activity against resistant bacteria strains. In particular, compound 9b showed not only the most significantly improved activity (16 µg/mL) against S. aureus ATCC43300 and S. aureus ATCC31007, which was >16-fold more active than that of CAM and AZM, but also the best activity against S. pneumoniae B1 and S. pyogenes R1, with MIC values of 32 and 32 µg/mL. In addition, compounds 9a, 9c, 9d and 9g exhibited the most effective activity against S. pneumoniae AB11 with MIC values of 32 or 64 µg/mL as well. Unfortunately, 2′,9(S)-diaryl-3-O-descladinosyl-3-keto-clarithromycin derivatives failed to exhibit better antibacterial activity than references. It can be seen that the combined modification of the C-3 and C-11 positions of clarithromycin is beneficial to improve activity against resistant bacteria, while the single modification of the C-2′' position is very detrimental to antibacterial activity.

Over the past few years, the number of people diagnosed with type 2 diabetes has increased owing to an unhealthy diet, a limited amount of exercise, and obesity. The search for novel and efficient antidiabetes agents has become an urgent task for scientists. Among the antidiabetes drugs, α-glucosidase inhibitor drugs have been proven to have many advantages over other drugs, and therefore, a large number of new compounds as α-glucosidase inhibitors has recently been reported. In this review, we summarize these newly found α-glucosidase inhibitors and their structure-activity relationships in antidiabetic studies and provide better structures for α-glucosidase inhibitors or even preclinical candidates. Beyond that, some enlightening strategies for the synthesis of relevant compounds are highlighted.

The treatment of the infections caused by Pseudomonas aeruginosa, an opportunistic Gram-negative bacterium, is very difficult. High intrinsic tolerance toward common antibiotics and the development of new resistant strains challenge us to find a new treatment as soon as possible. PqsD is an enzyme essential for the P. aeruginosa quorum-sensing apparatus, which catalyzes the final and key step in the biosynthesis of 4-hydroxy-2-heptylquinolone (HHQ), which is a signal molecule of the P. aeruginosa quorum-sensing system. In this review, following an outline on their structures, we present a brief introduction of the PqsD inhibitors including their mechanisms of action, inhibitory activity, and structure-activity relationships.

Quorum sensing, a common cell-to-cell communication system, is considered to have promising application in antibacterial therapy since they are expected to induce lower bacterial resistance than conventional antibiotics. However, most of present quorum sensing inhibitors have potent cell toxicity, which limits their application. In this study we evaluated the diverse quorum sensing inhibition activities of different biaromatic furanones and brominated pyrrolones. On this basis, we further designed and synthesized a new series of aryl-substituted pyrrolones 12a-12f. In the quorum sensing inhibition assay, compound 12a showed improved characteristics and low toxicity against human hepatocellular carcinoma cell. In particular, it can inhibit the pyocyanin production and protease activity of Pseudomonas aeruginosa by 80.6 and 78.5%, respectively. Besides, in this series, some compounds exerted moderate biofilm inhibition activity. To sum up, all the findings indicate that aryl-substituted pyrrolidone derivatives are worth further investigation as quorum sensing inhibitors. Refereed/Peer-reviewed

usc Drug efflux pumps confer multidrug resistance to dangerous bacterial pathogens which makes these proteins promising drug targets. Herein, we present initial chemical optimization and structure-activity relationship (SAR) data around a previously described efflux pump inhibitor, nordihydroguaretic acid (NDGA). Four series of novel NDGA analogues that target Escherichia coli AcrB were designed, synthesized and evaluated for their ability to potentiate the activity of antibiotics, to inhibit AcrB-mediated substrate efflux and reduce off-target activity. Nine novel structures were identified that increased the efficacy of a panel of antibiotics, inhibited drug efflux and reduced permeabilization of the bacterial outer and inner membranes. Among them, WA7, WB11 and WD6 possessing broad-spectrum antimicrobial sensitization activity were identified as NDGA analogues with favorable properties as potential AcrB inhibitors,demonstrating moderate improvement in potency as compared to NDGA. In particular, WD6 was the most broadly active analogue improving the activity of all four classes of antibacterials tested. Refereed/Peer-reviewed

The continuous emergence of drug-resistant bacteria has become a severe threat to the public health. Therefore, the discovery of novel antibacterial mechanisms to combat this jeopardized problem is urgently needed. In the past decades, plenty of new antibacterial modes of action have been discovered continuously, based on which many promising scaffolds have been designed and synthesized. In particular, cationic amphiphilic small-molecules open a door to the new mode of action of bactericidal agents by depolarizing and disturbing the bacteria membrane. The cationic amphiphilic are characterized by high efficacy, resistant-proof, wide-spectrum, and high selectivity toward bacteria. In this review, we summarized recent advances in the discovery of membrane-active small-molecules and their structure-activity relationships (SARs), hoping to provide an evidence for future research and development of new antibacterial agents with new mechanism.

Heparanase, an only endo-β-d-glucuronidase capable of cleaving heparan sulfate (HS) side chains at specific sites, contributes to remodeling of the extracellular matrix (ECM) and releasing of HS-linked growth factors, cytokines and signaling proteins. In addition, heparanase also plays an indispensable role in tumor angiogenesis, invasion and metastasis, indicating that it is a promising target for the development of antitumor drugs. Recent progress leads to three classes of heparanase inhibitors, including active analogs of endogenous substance, synthetic small molecule compounds and natural products. In this review, following an outline on the heparanase structure and function, an overview of the advancement of heparanase inhibitors as novel and potent anti-cancer agents will be given, especially introducing various existing heparanase inhibitors, as well as their inhibitory activities and mechanisms of action.

The bacterial cell division protein, FtsZ, has been identified as a target for antimicrobial development. Derivatives of 3-methoxybenzamide have shown promising activities as FtsZ inhibitors in Gram-positive bacteria. We sought to characterise the activity of five difluorobenzamide derivatives with non-heterocyclic substituents attached through the 3-oxygen. These compounds exhibited antimicrobial activity against methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), with an isopentyloxy-substituted compound showing modest activity against vancomycin resistant Enterococcus faecium (VRE). The compounds were able to reverse resistance to oxacillin in highly resistant clinical MRSA strains at concentrations far below their MICs. Three of the compounds inhibited an Escherichia coli strain lacking the AcrAB components of a drug efflux pump, which suggests the lack of Gram-negative activity can partly be attributed to efflux. The compounds inhibited cell division by targeting S. aureus FtsZ, producing a dose-dependent increase in GTPase rate which increased the rate of FtsZ polymerization and stabilized the FtsZ polymers. These compounds did not affect the polymerization of mammalian tubulin and did not display haemolytic activity or cytotoxicity. These derivatives are therefore promising compounds for further development as antimicrobial agents or as resistance breakers to re-sensitive MRSA to beta-lactam antibiotics.

Antibiotic resistance among clinically significant bacterial pathogens, such as methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and vancomycin-resistant S. aureus (VRSA) is becoming a prevalent threat to public health, and new antibacterial agents with novel mechanisms of action hence are in an urgent need. As a part of continuing effort to develop antibacterial agents, we rationally designed and synthesized two series of 4,5-dihydroisoxazol-5-yl and 4,5-dihydroisoxazol-3-yl-containing benzamide derivatives that targeted the bacterial cell division protein FtsZ. Evaluation of their activity against a panel of Gram-positive and -negative pathogens revealed that compound A16 possessing the 4,5-dihydroisoxazol-5-yl group showed outstanding antibacterial activity (MIC, ≤0.125–0.5 μg/mL) against various testing strains, including methicillin-resistant, penicillin-resistant and clinical isolated S. aureus strains. Besides, further mouse infection model revealed that A16 could be effective in vivo and non-toxic to Hela cells. Finally, a detailed discussion of structure-activity relationships was conducted, referring to the docking results. It is worth noting that substituting a 4,5-dihydroisoxazole ring for the isoxazole ring not only broadened the antibacterial spectrum but also resulted in a significant increase in antibacterial activity against S. aureus strains. Taken together, these results suggest a promising chemotype for the development of new FtsZ-targeting bactericidal agents.

A series of novel 11-O-carbamoyl-3-O-descladinosyl clarithromycin derivatives bearing the 1,2,3-triazole group were designed, synthesized, and evaluated for their in vitro antibacterial activity. The antibacterial results indicated that most of the target compounds not only increased their activity against resistant bacterial strains, but also partially retained the activity against sensitive bacterial strains compared with clarithromycin. Among them, 13d had the best antibacterial activity against resistant strains, including Streptococcus pneumoniae B1 expressing the ermB gene (16 µg/mL), Streptococcus pneumoniae AB11 expressing the mefA and ermB genes (16 µg/mL) and Streptococcus pyogenes R1 (16 µg/mL), showing >16, 8 and 16-fold higher activity than that of CAM, respectively. Moreover, 13d and 13g exhibited the best antibacterial activity against sensitive bacterial strains, including Staphylococcus aureus ATCC25923 (4 µg/mL) and Bacillus Subtilis ATCC9372 (1 µg/mL). The MBC results showed that the most promising compounds 13d and 13g exhibited antibacterial activity through bacteriostatic mechanism, while the time-kill kinetic experiment revealed bactericidal kinetics of 13g from microscopic point of view. In vitro antibacterial experiments and molecular docking results further confirmed that it was feasible to our initial design strategy by modifying the C-3 and C-11 positions of clarithromycin to increase the activity against resistant bacteria.

The chemical modification of natural products has been a major method in the discovery and synthesis of new macrolide antibiotics (MA) to treat a variety of infectious diseases. However, a lot of MA obtained in the above methods are no longer effective, because the bacteria quickly develop their resistance to these new macrolides, which has become a great threat to successful treatment of infectious diseases, such as infections of the respiratory system and urinary system. In this paper, total synthetic methods for MA that include erythromycin A (ERY), azithromycin (AZM), the clinical candidate solithromycin (CEM-101), as well as 14-membered and 15-membered azaketolides have been systematically reviewed on the basis of the literature reported previously. The total synthetic methods we describe here helps to accelerate the discovery of newer MA to deal with the serious problem of bacterial resistance.

Antibiotic resistance among clinically significant bacterial pathogens is becoming a prevalent threat to public health, and new antibacterial agents with novel mechanisms of action hence are in an urgent need. Utilizing computational docking method and structure-based optimization strategy, we rationally designed and synthesized two series of isoxazol-3-yl- and isoxazol-5-yl-containing benzamide derivatives that targeted the bacterial cell division protein FtsZ. Evaluation of their activity against a panel of Gram-positive and -negative pathogens revealed that compounds B14 and B16 that possessed the isoxazol-5-yl group showed strong antibacterial activity against various testing strains, including methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus and penicillin-resistant S. aureus. Further molecular biological studies and docking analyses proved that the compound functioned as an effective inhibitor to alter the dynamics of FtsZ self-polymerization via a stimulatory mechanism, which finally terminated the cell division and caused cell death. Taken together, these results could suggest a promising chemotype for development of new FtsZ-targeting bactericidal agent. Refereed/Peer-reviewed

A novel series of 3-O-arylalkylcarbamoyl-3-O-descladinosyl-9-O-(2-chlorobenzyl)oxime clarithromycin derivatives, were designed, synthesized and evaluated for their in vitro antibacterial activity. These derivatives were found to have strong activity against susceptible and resistant bacteria strains. Among them, compounds 7a and 7q showed the most potent activity (0.125 µg/mL) against erythromycin-resistant S. pneumoniae expressing the mefA gene. Moreover, compounds 7f, 7i, 7p and 7z displayed remarkably improved activity (4 µg/mL) against penicillin-resistant S. aureus ATCC31007, and compounds 7a, 7b, 7f, 7p and 7z showed improved activity (8 µg/mL) against erythromycin-resistant S. pyogenes. In particular, compound 7z exhibited potent and balanced activity against the tested drug-susceptible and -resistant bacterial strains.

A novel series of 5-methyl-2-phenylphenanthridium derivatives were displayed outstanding activity against a panel of antibiotic-sensitive and -resistant bacteria strains compared with their precursor sanguinarine, ciprofloxacin and oxacillin sodium. Compounds 7 l, 7m and 7n were found to display the most effective activity against five sensitive strains (0.06–2 μg/mL) and three resistant strains (0.25–4 μg/mL). The kinetic profiles indicated that compound 7l possessed the strongest bactericidal effect on S. aureus ATCC25923, with the MBC value of 16 μg/mL. The cell morphology and the FtsZ polymerization assays indicated that these compounds inhibited the bacterial proliferation by interfering the function of bacterial FtsZ. The SARs showed that all the 4-methyl-substituted 5-methyl-2-phenylphenanthridium subseries could be further investigated as the FtsZ-targeting antibacterial agents. Refereed/Peer-reviewed

Thromboembolic diseases such as deep vein thrombosis (DVT), pulmonary embolism (PE), myocardial infarction (MI) and ischemic strokes are mainly responsible for people's morbidity and mortality and have severely affected the people's quality of life all over the world. According to WHO statistics, an average of 17 million people are killed by the thromboembolic diseases each year globally. Therefore, the prevention and treatment of thromboembolic diseases have received widespread attention in recent years. Based on thrombotic mechanism, anti-thrombotic drugs are mainly divided into anticoagulants, antiplatelet agents and direct thrombolytic drugs. In particular, anticoagulants such as vitamin K antagonists (VKAs), unfractionated heparin (UFH), and low-molecular-weight heparins (LMWHs) have become the main therapies for pre-treatment of thromboembolic disorders. However, the limitations of traditional anticoagulants such as slow onset of action, dose-adjusted requirement, drug-drug and drug-food interactions have restricted their improvement in the clinical treatment. The mechanism of the thromboembolic disorders has indicated that coagulation factor Xa (fXa) plays a pivotal role in the blood coagulation cascade. Thus, selective inhibition of fXa by diminishing the amplified generation of thrombin without affecting the pre-existing thrombin levels can provide better antithrombotic effect, thereby causing less impairment of primary hemostasis. In this paper, we mainly introduce the recent advances of fXa inhibitors, with focus on their biological activity and structure-activity relationship (SAR) information. In particular, the inspirations from the structures of the fXa inhibitors and their future direction are highlighted.

Hepatitis C is a viral liver infection considered as the major cause of cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). The HCV NS5B polymerase, an RNA-dependent RNA polymerase, is essential for HCV replication, which is able to catalyze the synthesis of positive (genomic) and negative (template) strand HCV RNA, but has no functional equivalent in mammalian cells. Therefore, the NS5B polymerase has emerged as an attractive target for the development of specifically targeted antiviral therapy for HCV (DAA, for direct-acting antivirals). Recently, a growing number of compounds have been reported as the NS5B polymerase inhibitors, some of which especially have been licensed in clinical trials. This review describes recent advances on the synthesis of the NS5B polymerase inhibitors, focusing on the merits and demerits of their synthetic methods. In particular, inspiration from the synthesis and the future direction of the NS5B polymerase inhibitors are highlighted.

A series of novel 4-bromo-1H-indazole derivatives as filamentous temperature-sensitive protein Z (FtsZ) inhibitors were designed, synthesized, and assayed for their in vitro antibacterial activity against various phenotypes of Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria and their cell division inhibitory activity. The results indicated that this series showed better antibacterial activity against Staphylococcus epidermidis and penicillin-susceptible Streptococcus pyogenes than the other tested strains. Among them, compounds 12 and 18 exhibited 256-fold and 256-fold more potent activity than 3-methoxybenzamide (3-MBA) against penicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, and compound 18 showed 64-fold better activity than 3-MBA but 4-fold weaker activity than ciprofloxacin in the inhibition of S. aureus ATCC29213. Particularly, compound 9 presented the best activity (4 µg/mL) against S. pyogenes PS, being 32-fold, 32-fold, and 2-fold more active than 3-MBA, curcumin, and ciprofloxacin, respectively, but it was four times less active than oxacillin sodium. In addition, some synthesized compounds displayed moderate inhibition of cell division against S. aureus ATCC25923, Escherichia coli ATCC25922, and Pseudomonas aeruginosa ATCC27853, sharing a minimum cell division concentration of 128 µg/mL.

3-Methoxybenzamide (3-MBA) derivatives have been identified as novel class of potent antibacterial agents targeting the bacterial cell division protein FtsZ. As one of isosteres for the amide group, 1,2,3-triazole can mimic the topological and electronic features of the amide, which has gained increasing attention in drug discovery. Based on these considerations, we prepared a series of 1. H-1,2,3-triazole-containing 3-MBA analogues via isosteric replacement of the terminal amide with triazole, which had increased antibacterial activity. This study demonstrated the possibility of developing the 1. H-1,2,3-triazole group as a terminal amide-mimetic element which was capable of both keeping and modulating amide-related bioactivity. Surprisingly, a different action mode of these new 1. H-1,2,3-triazole-containing analogues was observed, which could open new opportunities for the development of antibacterial agents. Refereed/Peer-reviewed

Inflammation is favorable in most cases, because it is a kind of body defensive response to external stimuli; sometimes, inflammation is also harmful, such as attacks on the body's own tissues. It could be that inflammation is a unified process of injury and resistance to injury. Inflammation brings extreme pain to patients, showing symptoms of rubor, swelling, fever, pain and dysfunction. As the specific mechanism is not clear yet, the current anti-inflammatory agents are given priority for relieving suffering of patients. Thus it is emergent to find new anti-inflammatory agents with rapid effect. Lipoxygenase (LOX) is a kind of rate-limiting enzyme in the process of arachidonic acid metabolism into leukotriene (LT) which mediates the occurrence of inflammation. The inhibition of LOX can reduce LT, thereby producing an anti-inflammatory effect. In this review, the LOX inhibitors reported in recent years are summarized, and, in particular, their activities, structure–activity relationships and molecular docking studies are emphasized, which will provide new ideas to design novel LOX inhibitors.

A novel series of 4-substituted 2-naphthamide derivatives were designed, synthesized and evaluated for their biological activity. In particular, the ability of the compounds to potentiate the action of antibiotics, to inhibit Nile Red efflux and to target AcrB specifically was investigated. The results indicated that most of the 4-substituted 2-naphthamide derivatives were able to synergize with the antibiotics tested, and inhibit Nile Red efflux by AcrB in the resistant phenotype. Subsequent exclusion of compounds with off target effects such as outer- or inner membrane permeabilization identified compounds 7c, 7g, 12c, 12i and 13g as efflux pump inhibitors (EPIs). Particularly, compounds 7c, 7g and 12i were found to be the most potent EPIs, which synergized with the two substrates tested at lower concentrations than that of parent A3, demonstrating an improvement in potency as compared to A3. Additionally, when the outer membrane of E. coli was permeabilized, compound 12c displayed a huge increase in efficacy and was able to synergize with erythromycin at a concentration that was 16 times lower than that of the parent A3. Hence we were able to design and synthesize compounds that displayed significant increase in efficacy as EPIs against AcrB. Refereed/Peer-reviewed

A series of novel 11-O-carbamoyl clarithromycin ketolides were designed, synthesized and evaluated for their in vitro antibacterial activity. The results showed that the majority of the target compounds displayed improved activity compared with references against erythromycin-resistant S. pneumoniae A22072 expressing the mef gene, S. pneumoniae B1 expressing the erm gene and S. pneumoniae AB11 expressing the mef and erm genes. In particular, compounds 9, 18, 19 and 22 showed the most potent activity against erythromycin-resistant S. pneumoniae A22072 with the MIC values of 0.5μg/mL. Furthermore, compounds 11, 18, 19, 24 and 29 were also found to exhibit favorable antibacterial activity against erythromycin-susceptible S. pyogenes with the MIC values of 0.125-1μg/mL, and moderate activity against erythromycin-susceptible S. aureus ATCC25923 and B. subtilis ATCC9372.

Three novel structural series of 4″- O -(1-aralkyl-1,2,3-triazol-4-methyl-carbamoyl) azithromycin analogs were designed, synthesized and evaluated for their in vitro antibacterial activity. All the target compounds exhibited excellent activity against erythromycin-susceptible Streptococcus pyogenes , and significantly improved activity against three phenotypes of erythromycin-resistant Streptococcus pneumoniae compared with clarithromycin and azithromycin. Among the three series of azithromycin analogs, the novel series of 11,4″-disubstituted azithromycin analogs 9a – k exhibited the most effective and balanced activity against susceptible and resistant bacteria. Among them, compound 9j showed the most potent activity against Staphylococcus aureus ATCC25923 (0.008 µg/mL) and Streptococcus pyogenes R2 (1 µg/mL). Besides, all the 11,4″-disubstituted azithromycin analogs 9a – k except 9f shared the identical activity with the MIC value Streptococcus pyogenes S2. Furthermore, compounds 9g , 9h , 9j and 9k displayed significantly improved activity compared with the references against all the three phenotypes of resistant S. pneumoniae . Particularly, compound 9k was the most effective (0.06, 0.03 and 0.125 µg/mL) against all the erythromycin-resistant S. pneumoniae expressing the erm gene, the mef gene and the erm and mef genes, exhibiting 2133, 133 and 2048-fold more potent activity than azithromycin, respectively.

5-Methylphenanthridium derivatives were designed, synthesized and evaluated for their in vitro antibacterial activity and cell division inhibitory activity against various Gram-positive and -negative bacteria. Among them, compounds 5A2, 5B1, 5B2, 5B3, 5C1 and 5C2 displayed the best on-target antibacterial activity with an MIC value of 4 µg/mL against B. subtilis ATCC9372 and S. pyogenes PS, showing over 2-fold better activity than sanguinarine. The SARs showed that the 5-methylphenanthridium derivatives with the alkyl side chains at the 2-postion, especially the straight alkyl side chains exerted better on-target antibacterial activity. Refereed/Peer-reviewed

The overuse of antibiotics which exerts the selective pressure for bacterial pathogens has facilitated the spread of antibiotics' resistance. Metallo-β-lactamases (MβLs) are zinc enzymes produced by an increasing number of bacterial pathogens. They can readily cleave carbapenems and most other β-lactams that are mainstays of therapy for bacterial infections. MβL-conferred resistance to antibiotics is most worrisome due to MβLs exhibiting very broad-spectrum resistance. Therefore, the bacteria carrying MβLs have recently become a significant clinical threat. No clinically useful MβLs inhibitor has been discovered yet. To address the serious threat to public health posed by the MβL-conferred resistance to antibiotics, novel effective MβL inhibitors are urgently needed. This review mainly describes various MβL inhibitors, giving special attention to their antibacterial activity, mechanisms of action, structure-activity relationships and synergetic effect with clinically available antibiotics.

A series of novel 11,4″-disubstituted azithromycin analogs were synthesized and evaluated for their antibacterial activity. All the 11,4″-disubstituted analogs exhibited excellent activity (0.03–0.12 μg/ml) against erythromycin-susceptible Streptococcus pneumoniae , and significantly improved activity against three phenotypes of erythromycin-resistant S. pneumoniae compared with erythromycin A, clarithromycin or azithromycin. Among them, compounds 26 – 28 showed the most potent activity (0.25, 0.03 and 2 μg/ml) against S. pneumoniae expressing the erm gene, the mef gene and the erm and mef genes, respectively. In addition, compound 28 was the most effective (0.03 and 0.12 μg/ml) against erythromycin-susceptible S. pneumoniae and Staphylococcus aureus as well. It is noteworthy that the most active compounds described above possess the same terminal 3,5-dinitrophenyl groups on their C-4″ bisamide side chains.

Novel series of novel 3- O -arylalkylcarbamoyl descladinosylazithromycin derivatives with the 2′- O -acetyl and 11,12-cyclic carbonate groups, the 11,12-cyclic carbonate group and the 11- O -arylalkylcarbamoyl side chain, and 2′- O -arylalkylcarbamoyl descladinosylazithromycin with the 11,12-cyclic carbonate group were designed, synthesized and evaluated for their antibacterial activity using broth microdilution method. The results showed that the majority of the target compounds showed moderate to favorable activity against six kinds of susceptible strains and almost all of them displayed significantly improved activity compared with references against three erythromycin-resistant strains of S. pneumoniae B1 expressing the erm B gene, S. pneumoniae AB11 expressing the erm B and mef A genes, and S. pyogenes R1. In particular, compound 6h exhibited the most potent activity against susceptible B. subtilis ATCC9372 (0.5 μg/mL), penicillin-resistant S. epidermidis (0.125 μg/mL), and erythromycin-resistant S. pneumoniae B1 (1 μg/mL) and S. pneumoniae AB11 (1 μg/mL), which were 2-, 2-, 256-, 256-fold better activity than azithromycin, respectively. Additionally, compounds 6f (0.5 μg/mL) and 6g (0.25 μg/mL) were the most active against S. pneumoniae A22072, which were 8- and 16-fold better activity than azithromycin (4 μg/mL). As for erythromycin-resistant S. pyogenes R1, compound 5a presented the most excellent activity (8 μg/mL), showing 32- and 32-fold higher activity than azithromycin (256 μg/mL) and clarithromycin (256 μg/mL).