BACKGROUND Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is a problematic pathogen posing a serious therapeutic challenge in the clinic. It is often multidrug-resistant (MDR) to conventional classes of antibacterial agents and there is an urgent need to develop new agents or strategies for treatment. Magnolol (ML) and honokiol (HL) are two naturally occurring diallylbiphenols which have be...

The emergence of multidrug-resistant bacteria is a global threat for human society. There exist recorded data that silver was used as an antimicrobial agent by the ancient Greeks and Romans during the 8th century. Silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) are of potential interest because of their effective antibacterial and antiviral activities, with minimal cytotoxic effects on the cells. However, very fe...

Twenty of the known and newly synthesized derivatives of pyrido-1,2-thiazine derivatives 3-7, which represent a novel class of potential antibacterial agents, were evaluated against strains of Mycobacterium fortuitum (PCM 672) and Staphylococcus aureus (PCM 2602). The pilot experiments showed that the compounds in an initial in vitro microbiological evaluation were not efficient antibacterial a...

The objective of this study was to compare quinolone resistance and gyrA mutations in clinical isolates of Klebsiella pneumoniae and Escherichia coli from Chinese adults who used quinolone in the preceding month and children without any known history of quinolone administration. The antimicrobial susceptibilities of 61 isolates from children and 79 isolates from adults were determined. The muta...

Quinolone resistance is caused mainly by chromosomal mutations in gram negative bacteria. In 1998, plasmid-mediated resistance to quinolones in clinical isolates was first reported in a Klebsiella pneumoniae strain. Locus qnr (quinolone resistance) was responsible of the quinolone resistance in this plasmid. qnr codes a protein whose function is protect both DNA-girase and topoisomerase IV from...

The use of light-activated bactericidal agents—photobactericides—is suggested in local infection in order to conserve conventional antibacterials for more systemic disease. Local administration of a photobactericide such as methylene blue coupled with locally-targeted red light illumination ensures the production of non-specific reactive oxygen species and thus a rapid and localised antibacteri...

Quinolone resistance normally arises by mutations in the chromosomal genes for type II topoisomerases and by changes in the expression of proteins that control the accumulation of quinolones inside bacteria. A novel mechanism of plasmid-mediated quinolone resistance was recently reported that involves DNA gyrase protection by a pentapeptide repeat family member called Qnr. This family includes ...

qnrE1, found in a clinical Klebsiella pneumoniae isolate, was undetectable by PCR assays used for the six qnr families. qnrE1 was located on a conjugative plasmid (ca. 185 kb) and differed from qnrB alleles by 25%. Phylogenetic reconstructions of qnr genes and proteins and analysis of the qnrE1 surroundings showed that this gene belongs to a new qnr family and was likely mobilized by ISEcp1 fro...

The development of new antibacterial agents, particularly those with unique biological targets, is essential to keep pace with the inevitable emergence of drug resistance in pathogenic bacteria. We identified the minimal structural component of the cyclic acyldepsipeptide (ADEP) antibiotics that exhibits antibacterial activity. We found that N-acyldifluorophenylalanine fragments function via th...

AbstractPyrimidine nucleosides are constituents of fundamental structure of the cells. There has been considerable attentions in the chemistry of pyrimidine derivatives due to having a wide range of biological activities such as antiviral, anti-malarial agents, cytostatic, antithelemintic, antibacterial, adenosine receptor ligands, anti-cancer agents, compounds targeting delayed-type hypersensi...