With the continued upsurge of antibiotic resistance and reduced susceptibility to almost all frontline antibiotics, there is a pressing need for the development of new, effective, and safe alternatives. In this study, a scaffold-hopping strategy was utilized to develop a novel class of penicillin-binding protein 2a (PBP2a) inhibitors, centered around a 4H-chromen-4-one core structure. These newly designed compounds demonstrated strong antibacterial efficacy against methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and other drug-resistant gram-positive pathogens.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEnterococcus faecalis is a hospital-associated opportunistic pathogen that can cause infections with high mortality, such as infective endocarditis. With an increasing occurrence of multidrug-resistant enterococci, there is a need for alternative strategies to treat enterococcal infections. We isolated a gentamicin-hypersusceptible E.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAntimicrobial resistance is an imminent threat worldwide. Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is one of the "superbug" family, manifesting resistance through the production of a penicillin binding protein, PBP2a, an enzyme that provides its transpeptidase activity to allow cell wall biosynthesis. PBP2a's low affinity to most β-lactams, confers resistance to MRSA against numerous members of this class of antibiotics.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFGram-negative bacteria pose a distinctive risk worldwide, especially with the evolution of major resistance to carbapenems, fluoroquinolones and colistin. Therefore, development of new antibacterial agents to target Gram-negative infections is of utmost importance. Using phenotypic screening, we synthesized and tested thirty-one benzimidazole derivatives against E.
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