Biological activity and synthetic metodologies for the preparation of fluoroquinolones, a class of potent antibacterial agents.

In this present review we report different synthetic methodologies for the preparation of fluoroquinolones and their biological properties. The appearance of the fluoroquinolones, a new class of antibacterial agents (based on nalidixic acid, 4-quinolone-3-carboxylates), in early 1980's, gave a new impulse for the international competition to synthesize more effective drugs. Fluoroquinolones have a broad spectrum of activity against Gram-positive, Gram-negative and mycobacterial organisms as well as anaerobes. The fluoroquinolone ciprofloxacin hydrochloride is an important bioterrorist weapon and also an antibiotic used to treat bacterial infection in many different parts of the body, approved for use in patients who have been exposed to the inhaled form of anthrax.