Synthesis and biological evaluation of rhodanine derivatives bearing a quinoline moiety as potent antimicrobial agents.

Three series of rhodanine derivatives bearing a quinoline moiety (6a-h, 7a-g, and 8a-e) have been synthesized, characterized, and evaluated as antibacterial agents. The majority of these compounds showed potent antibacterial activities against several different strains of Gram-positive bacteria, including multidrug-resistant clinical isolates. Of the compounds tested, 6g and 8c were identified as the most effective with minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) values of 1 μg/mL against multidrug-resistant Gram-positive organisms, including methicillin-resistant and quinolone-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA and QRSA, respectively). None of the compounds exhibited any activity against the Gram-negative bacteria Escherichia coli 1356 at 64 μg/mL. The cytotoxic activity assay showed that compounds 6g, 7g and 8e exhibited in vitro antibacterial activity at non-cytotoxic concentrations. Thus, these studies suggest that rhodanine derivatives bearing a quinoline moiety are interesting scaffolds for the development of novel Gram-positive antibacterial agents.