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Design, synthesis, and evaluation of aryl-thioether ruthenium polypyridine complexes: A multi-target antimicrobial agents against gram-positive bacteria

Journal

EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF MEDICINAL CHEMISTRY
Volume 240, Issue -, Pages -

Publisher

ELSEVIER FRANCE-EDITIONS SCIENTIFIQUES MEDICALES ELSEVIER
DOI: 10.1016/j.ejmech.2022.114562

Keywords

Ruthenium polypyridine complexes; Antimicrobial agents; Cell membrane; Drug resistance

Funding

  1. Department Education Science and Technology Research Project of Jiangxi, China [GJJ190619, GJJ201143]
  2. Jiangxi Science & Technology Normal University [2019BSQD016]

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This study designed, synthesized, and evaluated four new ruthenium polypyridine complexes modified with 4-tBu-phenyl sulfide. These complexes showed strong antimicrobial activity against Staphylococcus aureus both in vitro and in vivo, making them a potential treatment option for Gram-positive bacterial infections.
With the increase in bacterial resistance, new antimicrobial agents are urgently need for developing to combat multidrug-resistant pathogens and with low cytotoxicity. In this study, four new ruthenium polypyridine complexes bearing 4-tBu-phenyl sulfide Ru(bpy)(2)(TBPIP)](PF6)(2) (Ru(II)-1), Ru(dmb)(2)(TBPIP)](PF6)(2) (Ru(II)-2), Ru (dmob)(2)(TBPIP)](PF6)(2) (Ru(II)-3) and Ru(dtb)(2)(TBPIP)](PF6)(2) (Ru(II)-4) were designed, synthesized and evaluated. Those ruthenium complexes showed strong activity against Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) in vitro and in vivo. The Ru(II)-1 showed excellent antimicrobial activity against Gram-positive bacteria (MIC = 2.0 mu g/mL), poor hemolytic activity (HC50 > 200 mu g/mL), and low cytotoxicity to mammalian cells. Ru(II)-1 can kill bacteria quickly by destroying the bacterial membranes and avoid developing bacterial cross-resistance. Moreover, antibacterial mechanism studies show that Ru(II)-1 destroys the integrity of bacterial cell membrane by permeabilization and depolarization of bacterial cell membrane, and interacts with bacterial DNA to produce a large number of ROS to kill bacteria. Importantly, Ru(II)-1 exhibited effective in vivo efficacy in the mouse S. aureus infection model. These results indicated that ruthenium polypyridine complexes modified with 4-tBu-phenyl sulfide had the therapeutic potential as a novel membrane-active antimicrobial to combat Gram-positive bacterial infections.

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