Novel hybrids of metronidazole and quinolones: synthesis, bioactive evaluation, cytotoxicity, preliminary antimicrobial mechanism and effect of metal ions on their transportation by human serum albumin.

A novel series of hybrids of metronidazole and quinolones as antimicrobial agents were designed and synthesized. Most prepared compounds exhibited good or even stronger antimicrobial activities in comparison with reference drugs. Furthermore, these highly active metronidazole-quinolone hybrids showed appropriate ranges of pKa, log P and aqueous solubility to pharmacokinetic behaviors and no obvious toxicity to A549 and human hepatocyte LO2 cells. Their competitive interactions with metal ions to HSA revealed that the participation of Mg(2+) ion in compound 7d-HSA association could result in a concentration increase of free compound 7d. Molecular modeling and experimental investigation of compound 7d with DNA suggested that possible antibacterial mechanism might be in relation with multiple binding sites between bioactive molecules and topo IV-DNA complex.