Synthesis and Medicinal Chemistry of the Antibacterial Cationic Biarylpeptidomimetics

Novel antibiotic chemotherapies are in high demand for the treatment of drugresistant and hypervirulent bacterial infections. Clostridium difficile has been identified as the costliest bacterial pathogen – both in terms of financial burden and human mortality. Furthermore, the current treatments that exist for C. difficile infection (CDI) are inadequate and expensive. Therefore, an ongoing collaborative effort has focused on the design and development of novel antibacterial chemotherapeutics for the treatment of CDI. Sixty-two novel biarylpeptide derivatives were synthesized from 17 unique scaffolds and tested for antimicrobial efficacy against a wide range of pathogenic bacteria and fungi at multiple laboratories. An efficient, modular and scalable synthesis that utilized 11 key building block precursors was designed and employed in the realization of the novel biarylpeptide scaffolds. The modular approach allowed for facile diversification and derivatization of the target scaffolds.