Flustramine inspired synthesis and biological evaluation of pyrroloindoline triazole amides as novel inhibitors of bacterial biofilms.

Anti-biofilm agents have been developed based upon the flustramine family of alkaloids isolated from Flustra foliacea. A Garg interrupted Fischer indolization reaction was employed to access a core pyrroloindoline scaffold that was subsequently employed to create a pyrroloindoline triazole amide library. Screening for the ability to modulate biofilm formation against strains of Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria identified several compounds with low micromolar, non-toxic IC(50) values.