Potential for the Development of a New Generation of Aminoglycoside Antibiotics

The present review summarizes recent publications devoted to aminoglycosides that study the main types of resistance to antibiotics of this class and the main directions of chemical modification aimed at overcoming the resistance or changing the spectrum of biological activity. Conjugates of aminoglycosides with various pharmacophores including amino acids, peptides, peptide nucleic acids, nucleic bases, and several other biologically active molecules and modifications resulting in other types of biological activity of this class of antibiotics are described. It is concluded that a promising research direction aimed at increasing the activity of antibiotics against resistant strains is the search for selective inhibitors of aminoglycoside-modifying enzymes. This would allow renewal of the use of antibiotics already meeting widespread resistance and would increase the potential of a new generation of antibiotics.

Aminoglycoside Conjugation for RNA Targeting: Antimicrobials and Beyond

Natural aminoglycosides are therapeutically useful antibiotics and very efficient RNA ligands. They are oligosaccharides that contain several ammonium groups able to interfere with the translation process in prokaryotes upon binding to bacterial ribosomal RNA (rRNA), and thus, impairing protein synthesis. Even if aminoglycosides are commonly used in therapy, these RNA binders lack selectivity and are able to bind to a wide number of RNA sequences/structures. This is one of the reasons for their toxicity and limited applications in therapy. At the same time, the ability of aminoglycosides to bind to various RNAs renders them a great source of inspiration for the synthesis of new binders with improved affinity and specificity toward several therapeutically relevant RNA targets. Thus, a number of studies have been performed on these complex and highly functionalized compounds, leading to the development of various synthetic methodologies toward the synthesis of conjugated aminoglycosides. The aim of this review is to highlight recent progress in the field of aminoglycoside conjugation, paying particular attention to modifications performed toward the improvement of affinity and especially to the selectivity of the resulting compounds. This will help readers to understand how to introduce a desired chemical modification for future developments of RNA ligands as antibiotics, antiviral, and anticancer compounds.

Interactions of aminoglycoside antibiotics with rRNA

Aminoglycoside antibiotics are protein synthesis inhibitors applied to treat infections caused mainly by aerobic Gram-negative bacteria. Due to their adverse side effects they are last resort antibiotics typically used to combat pathogens resistant to other drugs. Aminoglycosides target ribosomes. We describe the interactions of aminoglycoside antibiotics containing a 2-deoxystreptamine (2-DOS) ring with 16S rRNA. We review the computational studies, with a focus on molecular dynamics (MD) simulations performed on RNA models mimicking the 2-DOS aminoglycoside binding site in the small ribosomal subunit. We also briefly discuss thermodynamics of interactions of these aminoglycosides with their 16S RNA target.