New pleuromutilin derivatives with enhanced antimicrobial activity.II.Structure-activity correlations.

Structural modification of the antibiotic pleuromutilin has afforded several derivatives with considerably enhanced activity against bacteria and mycoplasmas, and has permitted conclusions to be reached about structure-activity relationships. The carbonyl group in the five-membered ring and the hydroxyl group at C11 seem to be essential for activity. The vinyl group can be hydrogenated without loss of activity. Chemical modification at C14 offers the most possibilities for achieving the best activity and solubility properties. Mutilin, and other compounds with a free OH at C14, are inactive. It was shown that mutilin esters of substituted thioglycolic acids had distinctly superior MIC values, especially in combination with a tertiary amino group in the side chain, the latter group of derivatives having MIC values better than pleuromutilin by a factor of more than 10. Further variation within this group led to the development of 14-deoxy-14-[(2-diethylaminoethyl) thioacetoxy]-mutilin hydrogen fumarate (81.723 hfu, tiamulin) for extensive investigation of its chemotherapeutic potential.