The use of neamine as a molecular template: inactivation of bacterial antibiotic resistance enzyme aminoglycoside 3'-phosphotransferase type IIa.

Aminoglycoside 3'-phosphotransferase type IIa [APH(3')-IIa] is a member of the family of bacterial aminoglycoside-modifying enzymes. Bacteria that harbor these enzymes are resistant to aminoglycoside antibiotics. Four aminoglycoside-based affinity inactivators were synthesized and were shown to be both substrates and inactivators for APH(3')-IIa. These affinity inactivators are N-bromoacetylated derivatives of neamine, an aminoglycoside antibiotic, where the bromoacetyl moiety in each was introduced regiospecifically at a different amine of the parent compound.