Recent advances in the development of metal complexes as antibacterial agents with metal-specific modes of action.

The mounting burden of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is one of the most concerning threats to public health worldwide. With low economic incentives and a dwindling supply of new drugs in clinical pipelines, more innovative approaches to novel drug design and development are desperately required. Metal-based compounds are rapidly emerging as an alternative to organic drugs, as they have the ability to kill pathogens via metal-specific modes of action. We herein review recent advances in metal-based antibacterial agents, including metal complexes, metal ions and catalytic metallodrugs. The review concludes with a perspective on the rational design of metal-based antibiotics, and how we can exploit their unique properties to tackle AMR.

Expedient metal-free synthesis of 1,3-oxazinen-4-ones.

1,3-Oxazinen-4-ones are medicinally important scaffolds which have traditionally been accessed using a hetero-Diels-Alder approach or more recently using a cobalt-catalyzed three-component cycloaddition. Herein we report a novel strategy to access this scaffold which allows for the rapid and high yielding synthesis of 1,3-oxazinen-4-ones under ambient temperature and pressures with improved substrate scope.