Antibacterials. Synthesis and structure-activity studies of 3-aryl-2-oxooxazolidines. 1. The "B" group

Discovery and Structure-Activity Relationship of Cadazolid: A First-In-Class Quinoxolidinone Antibiotic for the Treatment of Clostridioides difficile Infection

Clostridioides difficile (C. difficile) is one of the leading causes of healthcare-associated infections worldwide. The increasing incidence of strains resistant to currently available therapies highlights the need for alternative treatment options with a novel mode of action. Oxazolidinones that are connected to a quinolone moiety with a pyrrolidine linker, such as compound 1, are reported to exhibit potent broadspectrum antibacterial activity. In an effort to optimize this class of compounds for the treatment of C. difficile infection (CDI), we have identified cadazolid (9), a first-in-class quinoxolidinone antibiotic, which is a potent inhibitor of C. difficile protein synthesis. In order to achieve narrow-spectrum coverage of clinically most relevant strains without affecting the gut microbiota, an emphasis was placed on abolishing activity against commensals of the intestinal microbiome while retaining good coverage of pathogenic C. difficile, including hypervirulent and epidemic strains.

Synthesis and medicinal chemical characterisation of antiproliferative O,N-functionalised isopulegol derivatives

Benzylation of isopulegol furnished O-benzyl-protected isopulegol, which was transformed into aminodiols via epoxidation followed by ring opening of the corresponding epoxides and subsequent hydrogenolysis. On the other hand, (-)-isopulegol was oxidised to a diol, which was then converted into dibenzyl-protected diol derivatives. The products were then transformed into aminotriols by using a similar method. The antiproliferative activity of aminodiol and aminotriol derivatives was examined. In addition, structure-activity relationships were also explored from the aspects of substituent effects and stereochemistry on the aminodiol and aminotriol systems. The drug-likeness of the compounds was assessed by in silico and experimental physicochemical characterisations, completed by kinetic aqueous solubility and in vitro intestinal-specific parallel artificial membrane permeability assay (PAMPA-GI) measurements.

Recent advances in the exploration of oxazolidinone scaffolds from compound development to antibacterial agents and other bioactivities

Bacterial infections cause a variety of life-threatening diseases, and the continuous evolution of drug-resistant bacteria poses an increasing threat to current antimicrobial regimens. Gram-positive bacteria (GPB) have a wide range of genetic capabilities that allow them to adapt to and develop resistance to practically all existing antibiotics. Oxazolidinones, a class of potent bacterial protein synthesis inhibitors with a unique mechanism of action involving inhibition of bacterial ribosomal translation, has emerged as the antibiotics of choice for the treatment of drug-resistant GPB infections. In this review, we discussed the oxazolidinone antibiotics that are currently on the market and in clinical development, as well as an updated synopsis of current advances on their analogues, with an emphasis on innovative strategies for structural optimization of linezolid, structure-activity relationship (SAR), and safety properties. We also discussed recent efforts aimed at extending the activity of oxazolidinones to gram-negative bacteria (GNB), antitumor, and coagulation factor Xa. Oxazolidinone antibiotics can accumulate in GNB by a conjugation to siderophore-mediated β-lactamase-triggered release, making them effective against GNB.

Chemoselective Reactions of Functionalized Sulfonyl Halides

Chemoselective transformations of functionalized sulfonyl fluorides and chlorides are surveyed comprehensively. It is shown that sulfonyl fluorides provide an excellent selectivity control in their reactions. Thus, numerous conditions are tolerated by the SO2 F group - from amide and ester formation to directed ortho-lithiation and transition-metal-catalyzed cross-couplings. Meanwhile, sulfur (VI) fluoride exchange (SuFEx) is also compatible with numerous functional groups, thus confirming its title of "another click reaction". On the contrary, with a few exceptions, most transformations of functionalized sulfonyl chlorides typically occur at the SO2 Cl moiety.

Divergent Pd-catalyzed Functionalization of 4-Oxazolin-2-ones and 4-Methylene-2-oxazolidinones and Synthesis of Heterocyclic-Fused Indoles

Palladium-catalyzed functionalization was presently performed on two building blocks: 4-oxazolin-2-ones and 4-methylene-2-oxazolidinones. Direct Heck arylation of 4-oxazolin-2-ones led to a series of 5-aryl-4-oxazolin-2-ones, including analogues with N-chiral auxiliary, in an almost quantitative yield. The Pd(II)-catalyzed homocoupling reaction of 4-oxazolin-2-ones provided novel heterocyclic across-ring dienes. Meanwhile, the intramolecular cross-coupling of N-aryl-4-methylene-2-oxazolidinones furnished a series of oxazolo[3,4-a]indol-3-ones. Further functionalization of 4-methylene-2-oxazolidinones afforded substituted indoles and heterocyclic-fused indoles with aryl, bromo, carbinol, formyl, and vinyl groups. A computational study was carried out to account for the behavior of the formylated derivatives. The currently developed methodology was applied to a new formal total synthesis of ellipticine.

Recent advances in oxazolidinones as antituberculosis agents

Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious and fatal disease caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) and remains a serious public health threat; therefore, the development of new antitubercular agents is a priority for the World Health Organization's End TB strategy and the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals to eradicate TB. Oxazolidinones are a class of synthetic antibacterial agents with a distinct mode of action developed for the treatment of Gram-positive bacterial infections. Many oxazolidinones exhibit good activity against Mtb, and some are currently in clinical trials for multidrug-resistant TB and extensively drug-resistant TB therapy. In this review, the mechanism of action, activity and toxicity of oxazolidinones and recent progress in the research and development of oxazolidinones as anti-TB agents are summarized.

A Review of the Recent Development in the Synthesis and Biological Evaluations of Pyrazole Derivatives

Pyrazoles are five-membered heterocyclic compounds that contain nitrogen. They are an important class of compounds for drug development; thus, they have attracted much attention. In the meantime, pyrazole derivatives have been synthesized as target structures and have demonstrated numerous biological activities such as antituberculosis, antimicrobial, antifungal, and anti-inflammatory. This review summarizes the results of published research on pyrazole derivatives synthesis and biological activities. The published research works on pyrazole derivatives synthesis and biological activities between January 2018 and December 2021 were retrieved from the Scopus database and reviewed accordingly.

Microwave-Assisted Electrostatically Enhanced Phenol-Catalyzed Synthesis of Oxazolidinones

An electrostatically enhanced phenol is utilized as a straightforward, sustainable, and potent one-component organocatalyst for the atom-economic transformation of epoxides to oxazolidinones under microwave irradiation. Integrating a positively charged center into phenols over a modular one-step preparation gives rise to a bifunctional system with improved acidity and activity, competent in rapid assembly of epoxides and isocyanates under microwave irradiation in a short reaction time (20-60 min). A careful assessment of the efficacy of various positively charged phenols and anilines and the impact of several factors, such as catalyst loading, temperature, and the kind of nucleophile, on catalytic reactivity were examined. Under neat conditions, this one-component catalytic platform was exploited to prepare more than 40 examples of oxazolidinones from a variety of aryl- and alkyl-substituted epoxides and isocyanates within minutes, where up to 96% yield and high degree of selectivity were attained. DFT calculations to achieve reaction barriers for different catalytic routes were conducted to provide mechanistic understanding and corroborated the experimental findings in which concurrent epoxide ring-opening and isocyanate incorporation were proposed.

Ruthenium (II) Catalyzed C(sp2 )-H Bond Alkenylation of 2-Arylbenzo[d]oxazole and 2-Arylbenzo[d]thiazole with Unactivated Olefins

Functionalization of the bio-relevant heterocycles 2-arylbenzo[d]oxazole and 2-arylbenzo[d]thiazole has been achieved through Ru(II)-catalyzed alkenylation with unactivated olefins leading to selective formation of the mono-alkenylated products. This approach has a broad substrate scope with respect to the coupling partners, affords high yields, and works for gram scale synthesis using a readily available Ru-based catalyst. Mechanistic studies reveal a C-H activation pathway for the dehydrogenative coupling leading to the alkenylation. However, the results of the ESI-MS-guided deuterium kinetic isotope effect studies indicate that the C-H activation stage may not be the rate-determining step of the reaction. The use of a radical scavenging agent such as TEMPO did not show any detrimental effect on the reaction outcome, eliminating the possibility of the involvement of a free-radical pathway.

Recent Advances in the Rational Design and Optimization of Antibacterial Agents

This review discusses next-generation antibacterial agents developed using rational, or targeted, drug design strategies. The focus of this review is on small-molecule compounds that have been designed to bypass developing bacterial resistance, improve the antibacterial spectrum of activity, and/or to optimize other properties, including physicochemical and pharmacokinetic properties. Agents are discussed that affect known antibacterial targets, such as the bacterial ribosome, nucleic acid binding proteins, and proteins involved in cell-wall biosynthesis; as well as some affecting novel bacterial targets which do not have currently marketed agents. The discussion of the agents focuses on the rational design strategies employed and the synthetic medicinal chemistry and structure-based design techniques utilized by the scientists involved in the discoveries, including such methods as ligand- and structure-based strategies, structure-activity relationship (SAR) expansion strategies, and novel synthetic organic chemistry methods. As such, the discussion is limited to small-molecule therapeutics that have confirmed macromolecular targets and encompasses only a fraction of all antibacterial agents recently approved or in late-stage clinical trials. The antibacterial agents selected have been recently approved for use on the U.S. or European markets or have shown promising results in phase 2 or phase 3 U.S.

CLINICAL TRIALS

Effective in silico prediction of new oxazolidinone antibiotics: force field simulations of the antibiotic-ribosome complex supervised by experiment and electronic structure methods

We propose several new and promising antibacterial agents for the treatment of serious Gram-positive infections. Our predictions rely on force field simulations, supervised by first principle calculations and available experimental data. Different force fields were tested in order to reproduce linezolid's conformational space in terms of a) the isolated and b) the ribosomal bound state. In a first step, an all-atom model of the bacterial ribosome consisting of nearly 1600 atoms was constructed and evaluated. The conformational space of 30 different ribosomal/oxazolidinone complexes was scanned by stochastic methods, followed by an evaluation of their enthalpic penalties or rewards and the mechanical strengths of the relevant hydrogen bonds (relaxed force constants; compliance constants). The protocol was able to reproduce the experimentally known enantioselectivity favoring the S-enantiomer. In a second step, the experimentally known MIC values of eight linezolid analogues were used in order to crosscheck the robustness of our model. In a final step, this benchmarking led to the prediction of several new and promising lead compounds. Synthesis and biological evaluation of the new compounds are on the way.

An Efficient Amide-Aldehyde-Alkene Condensation: Synthesis for the N-Allyl Amides

The allylamine skeleton represents a significant class of biologically active nitrogen compounds that are found in various natural products and drugs with well-recognized pharmacological properties. In this personal account, we will briefly discuss the synthesis of allylamine skeletons. We will focus on showing a general protocol for Lewis acid-catalyzed N-allylation of electron-poor N-heterocyclic amides and sulfonamide via an amide-aldehyde-alkene condensation reaction. The substrate scope with respect to N-heterocyclic amides, aldehydes, and alkenes will be discussed. This method is also capable of preparing the Naftifine motif from N-methyl-1-naphthamide or methyl (naphthalene-1-ylmethyl)carbamate, with paraformaldehyde and styrene in a one-pot manner.

Fe-catalyzed synthesis of substituted N-aryl oxazolidines

An unprecedented Fe-catalyzed oxazolidine formation was observed from the reaction of allyl alcohols with arylhydroxylamines in presence of formaldehyde or its equivalents.

Design, Synthesis, and Identification of Silicon Incorporated Oxazolidinone Antibiotics with Improved Brain Exposure

Therapeutic options for brain infections caused by pathogens with a reduced sensitivity to drugs are limited. Recent reports on the potential use of linezolid in treating brain infections prompted us to design novel compounds around this scaffold. Herein, we describe the design and synthesis of various oxazolidinone antibiotics with the incorporation of silicon. Our findings in preclinical species suggest that silicon incorporation is highly useful in improving brain exposures. Interestingly, three compounds from this series demonstrated up to a 30-fold higher brain/plasma ratio when compared to linezolid thereby indicating their therapeutic potential in brain associated disorders.

Tungsten-catalyzed regio- and enantioselective aminolysis of trans-2,3-epoxy alcohols: an entry to virtually enantiopure amino alcohols

The first catalytic enantioselective aminolysis of trans-2,3-epoxy alcohols has been accomplished. This stereospecific ring-opening process was efficiently promoted by a tungsten/bis(hydroxamic acid) catalytic system, furnishing various anti-3-amino-1,2-diols with excellent regiocontrol and high enantioselectivities (up to 95% ee). Moreover, virtually enantiopure 3-amino-1,2-diols could be obtained by the sequential combination of two reactions that both involve the use of a chiral catalyst.

The evolving role of chemical synthesis in antibacterial drug discovery

The discovery and implementation of antibiotics in the early twentieth century transformed human health and wellbeing. Chemical synthesis enabled the development of the first antibacterial substances, organoarsenicals and sulfa drugs, but these were soon outshone by a host of more powerful and vastly more complex antibiotics from nature: penicillin, streptomycin, tetracycline, and erythromycin, among others. These primary defences are now significantly less effective as an unavoidable consequence of rapid evolution of resistance within pathogenic bacteria, made worse by widespread misuse of antibiotics. For decades medicinal chemists replenished the arsenal of antibiotics by semisynthetic and to a lesser degree fully synthetic routes, but economic factors have led to a subsidence of this effort, which places society on the precipice of a disaster. We believe that the strategic application of modern chemical synthesis to antibacterial drug discovery must play a critical role if a crisis of global proportions is to be averted.

Tungsten-catalyzed regioselective and stereospecific ring opening of 2,3-epoxy alcohols and 2,3-epoxy sulfonamides

The first catalytic, highly C3-selective, stereosepecific ring-opening reaction of 2,3-epoxy alcohols and 2,3-epoxy sulfonamides has been accomplished. This process was efficiently promoted by W-salts, and the developed method was applicable to various epoxides with diverse N- and O-nucleophiles affording the products in good to excellent yields (up to 95%) and generally with high regioselectivities (C3:C2 up to >99:1).

Structure and properties of metal complexes of a pyridine based oxazolidinone synthesized by atmospheric CO2 fixation

Copper, platinum and palladium complexes of an oxazolidinone ligand show potential in catalysis or cytotoxicity, depending on the metal incorporated.

Investigational antimicrobial agents of 2013

New antimicrobial agents are always needed to counteract the resistant pathogens that continue to be selected by current therapeutic regimens. This review provides a survey of known antimicrobial agents that were currently in clinical development in the fall of 2012 and spring of 2013. Data were collected from published literature primarily from 2010 to 2012, meeting abstracts (2011 to 2012), government websites, and company websites when appropriate. Compared to what was reported in previous surveys, a surprising number of new agents are currently in company pipelines, particularly in phase 3 clinical development. Familiar antibacterial classes of the quinolones, tetracyclines, oxazolidinones, glycopeptides, and cephalosporins are represented by entities with enhanced antimicrobial or pharmacological properties. More importantly, compounds of novel chemical structures targeting bacterial pathways not previously exploited are under development. Some of the most promising compounds include novel β-lactamase inhibitor combinations that target many multidrug-resistant Gram-negative bacteria, a critical medical need. Although new antimicrobial agents will continue to be needed to address increasing antibiotic resistance, there are novel agents in development to tackle at least some of the more worrisome pathogens in the current nosocomial setting.

Recent development of potent analogues of oxazolidinone antibacterial agents

The oxazolidinones are a new and potent class of antimicrobial agents with activity mainly against Gram-positive strains. The commercial success of linezolid, the only FDA-approved oxazolidinone, has prompted many pharmaceutical companies to devote resources to this area of investigation. Until now, four types of chemical modifications of linezolid and oxazolidinone-type antibacterial agents, including modification on each of the A-(oxazolidinone), B-(phenyl), and C-(morpholine) rings as well as the C-5 side chain of the A-ring substructure, have been described. Division into sections according to side chain modification or the type of ring will be used throughout this review, although the process of synthesis usually involves the simultaneous modification of several elements of the linezolid substructure; therefore, assignment into the appropriate section depends on the structure-activity relationships (SAR) studies. This review makes an attempt to summarise the work carried out in the period from 2006 until mid-2012.

The oxazolidinones: past, present, and future

The success of linezolid stimulated significant efforts to discover new agents in the oxazolidinone class. Over a dozen oxazolidinones have reached the clinic, but many were discontinued due to lack of differentiated potency, inadequate pharmacokinetics, and safety risks that included myelosuppression. Four oxazolidinones are currently undergoing clinical evaluation. The Trius Therapeutics compound tedizolid phosphate (formerly known as torezolid phosphate, TR-701, DA-7218), the most advanced, is in phase 3 clinical trials for acute bacterial skin and skin structure infections. Rib-X completed two phase 2 studies for radezolid (Rx-01_667, RX-1741) in uncomplicated skin and skin structure infections and community-acquired pneumonia. Pfizer and AstraZeneca have each identified antitubercular compounds that have completed phase 1 studies: sutezolid (PNU-100480, PF-02341272) and AZD5847 (AZD2563), respectively. The oxazolidinones share a relatively low frequency of resistance largely due to the requirement of mutations in 23S ribosomal RNA genes. However, maintaining potency against strains carrying the mobile cfr gene poses a challenge for the oxazolidinone class, as well as other 50S ribosome inhibitors that target the peptidyl transferase center.

A critical review of oxazolidinones: an alternative or replacement for glycopeptides and streptogramins?

OBJECTIVE

To review the available data on the oxazolidinones linezolid and eperezolid.

DATA SELECTION

Published reports were obtained by searching MEDLINE for articles published between 1992 and 2000, inclusive. References of published papers were also obtained and reviewed. Abstracts from scientific proceedings were reviewed.

DATA EXTRACTION

Due to the limited data available regarding these agents, the criteria for study inclusion were not restrictive.

DATA SYNTHESIS

The oxazolidinones (eg, linezolid) are a new antimicrobial class with a unique mechanism of action. They are active against resistant Gram-positive cocci including methicillin-susceptible and -resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), methicillin-susceptible and -resistant Staphylococccus epidermidis, vancomycin-resistant enterococci (VRE) and penicillin-resistant Streptococcus pneumoniae (PRSP). Linezolid is active against anaerobes and displays modest activity against fastidious Gram-negative pathogens such as Haemophilus influenzae, but is not active against Enterobacteriaceae. Linezolid is available both orally and parenterally, and has a bioavailability of 100%. Clinical trials comparing linezolid with standard therapy have demonstrated similar bacteriological and clinical cures rates to standard therapy in community- and hospital-acquired pneumonia, uncomplicated and complicated skin and soft tissue infections, and infections caused by MRSA and VRE. Adverse effects have been minor and infrequent; however, platelets should be monitored in patients who have received more than two weeks of linezolid therapy. It is expected that these agents will have a bright future due to their excellent spectrum of activity against antibiotic-resistant Gram-positive organisms, such as MRSA, VRE and PRSP, and their excellent bioavailability.

CONCLUSION

The oxazolidinones represent a new class of antimicrobials with a unique mechanism of action. They have excellent activity against susceptible and resistant Gram-positive organisms such as MRSA, methicillin-susceptible S epidermidis, VRE and PRSP, and a good adverse effect profile; they can be administered both intravenously and orally. Their potential use in Canada may be as an intravenous and oral alternative to glycopeptides and streptogramins.