An Unexpected Discovery Toward Novel Membrane Active Sulfonyl Thiazoles As Potential Mrsa Dna Intercalators

Aim:With the increasing emergence of drug-resistant bacteria, the need for new antimicrobial agents has become extremely urgent. This work was to develop sulfonyl thiazoles as potential antibacterial agents.Results & methodology:Novel hybrids of sulfonyl thiazoles were developed from commercial acetanilide and acetylthiazole. Hybrids6eand6fdisplayed excellent inhibitory efficacy against clinical methicillin-resistantStaphylococcus aureus(MRSA) (minimum inhibitory concentration = 1 mu g/ml) without obvious toxicity toward normal mammalian cells (RAW 264.7). The combination uses were found to improve the antimicrobial ability. Further preliminary antibacterial mechanism experiments showed that the active molecule6fcould effectively interfere with MRSA membrane and insert into MRSA DNA.Conclusion:Compounds6eand6fcould serve as potential DNA-targeting templates toward the development of promising antimicrobial agents.