Construction of an arrayed CRISPRi library as a resource for essential gene function studies in Streptococcus mutans.

IMPORTANCE: The construction of arrayed mutant libraries has advanced the field of bacterial genetics by allowing researchers to more efficiently study the exact function and importance of encoded genes. In this study, we constructed an arrayed clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats interference (CRISPRi) library, known as S treptococcus mutans arrayed CRISPRi (SNAP), as a resource to study >250 essential and growth-supporting genes in Streptococcus mutans. SNAP will be made available to the research community, and we anticipate that its distribution will lead to high-quality, high-throughput, and reproducible studies of essential genes.

Development and Antibacterial Properties of 4-[4-(Anilinomethyl)-3-phenylpyrazol-1-yl]benzoic Acid Derivatives as Fatty Acid Biosynthesis Inhibitors.

A number of novel pyrazole derivatives have been synthesized, and several of these compounds are potent antibacterial agents with minimum inhibitory concentrations as low as 0.5 µg/mL. Human cell lines were tolerant to these lead compounds, and they showed negligible hemolytic effects at high concentrations. These bactericidal compounds are very effective against bacterial growth in both planktonic and biofilm contexts. Various techniques were applied to show the inhibition of biofilm growth and eradication of preformed biofilms by lead compounds. Potent compounds are more effective against persisters than positive controls. In vivo studies revealed that lead compounds are effective in rescuing C. elegans from bacterial infections. Several methods were applied to determine the mode of action including membrane permeability assay and SEM micrograph studies. Furthermore, CRISPRi studies led to the determination of these compounds as fatty acid biosynthesis (FAB) inhibitors.

Domino/Cascade and Multicomponent Reactions for the Synthesis of Thiazole Derivatives.

Substituted thiazoles are widely known as natural products, approved drugs, and a number of synthetic compounds as bioactive agents. Due to the worth of this heterocycle nucleus, a large number of synthetic methodologies have been reported over the years to synthesize its derivatives. In this perspective, recent advances in the synthesis of thiazole compounds by using domino/cascade and multicomponent approaches have been summarized.

Development of 4-[4-(Anilinomethyl)-3-phenyl-pyrazol-1-yl] Benzoic Acid Derivatives as Potent Anti-Staphylococci and Anti-Enterococci Agents.

From a library of compounds, 11 hit antibacterial agents have been identified as potent anti-Gram-positive bacterial agents. These pyrazole derivatives are active against two groups of pathogens, staphylococci and enterococci, with minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) values as low as 0.78 µg/mL. These potent compounds showed bactericidal action, and some were effective at inhibiting and eradicating Staphylococcus aureus and Enterococcus faecalis biofilms. Real-time biofilm inhibition by the potent compounds was studied, by using Bioscreen C. These lead compounds were also very potent against S. aureus persisters as compared to controls, gentamycin and vancomycin. In multiple passage studies, bacteria developed little resistance to these compounds (no more than 2 × MIC). The plausible mode of action of the lead compounds is the permeabilization of the cell membrane determined by flow cytometry and protein leakage assays. With the detailed antimicrobial studies, both in planktonic and biofilm contexts, some of these potent compounds have the potential for further antimicrobial drug development.

Novel pyrazoles as potent growth inhibitors of staphylococci, enterococci and Acinetobacter baumannii bacteria.

Background: Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, vancomycin-resistant enterococci and Acinetobacter baumannii cause serious antibiotic-resistant infections. Finding new antibiotics to treat these infections is imperative for combating this worldwide menace. Methods & Results: In this study, the authors designed and synthesized potent antimicrobial agents using 4-trifluoromethylphenyl-substituted pyrazole derivatives. In addition to their potency against planktonic bacteria, potent compounds effectively eradicated S. aureus and Enterococcus faecalis biofilms. Human cells tolerated these compounds with good selectivity factors. Furthermore, the authors provide evidence for the mode of action of compounds based on time-kill kinetics, flow cytometry analysis of propidium iodide-treated bacteria and oxygen uptake studies. Conclusion: This study demonstrated 20 novel compounds with potent antibacterial activity that are tolerated by human cell lines.

Design, synthesis, and antibacterial activity of N-(trifluoromethyl)phenyl substituted pyrazole derivatives.

Design and synthesis of N-(trifluoromethyl)phenyl substituted pyrazole derivatives and their potency as antimicrobial agents are described. Several of these novel compounds are effective growth inhibitors of antibiotic-resistant Gram-positive bacteria and prevent the development of biofilms by methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and Enterococcus faecalis. These compounds eradicated the preformed biofilms effectively and were found to be more effective than the control antibiotic vancomycin. Potent compounds showed low toxicity to cultured human embryonic kidney cells with a selectivity factor of >20. The most promising compound is very potent against meropenem, oxacillin, and vancomycin-resistant clinical isolates of Enterococcus faecium. Investigations into the mode of action by performing macromolecular synthesis inhibition studies showed a broad range of inhibitory effects, suggesting targets that have a global effect on bacterial cell function.

Synthesis of 3,5-Bis(trifluoromethyl)phenyl-Substituted Pyrazole Derivatives as Potent Growth Inhibitors of Drug-Resistant Bacteria.

Enterococci and methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA) are among the menacing bacterial pathogens. Novel antibiotics are urgently needed to tackle these antibiotic-resistant bacterial infections. This article reports the design, synthesis, and antimicrobial studies of 30 novel pyrazole derivatives. Most of the synthesized compounds are potent growth inhibitors of planktonic Gram-positive bacteria with minimum inhibitory concertation (MIC) values as low as 0.25 µg/mL. Further studies led to the discovery of several lead compounds, which are bactericidal and potent against MRSA persisters. Compounds 11, 28, and 29 are potent against S. aureus biofilms with minimum biofilm eradication concentration (MBEC) values as low as 1 µg/mL.

Antimelanoma activities of chimeric thiazole-androstenone derivatives.

The discovery of chimeric anti-melanoma agents is reported. These molecules are potent growth suppressors of melanoma cells in vitro with growth inhibition of 50% (GI50) values as low as 1.32 µM. Compounds were more toxic to melanoma cells in vitro than commonly used anti-melanoma agent dacarbazine as measured by TUNEL assay. They induced both caspase-independent apoptosis evident by colocalization of TUNEL with endonuclease G (EndoG) and caspase-mediated apoptosis measured by colocalization of TUNEL with caspase-activated DNase (CAD). In addition, compounds 3 and 5 strongly induced oxidative injury to melanoma cells as measured by TUNEL colocalization with heme oxygenase-1 (HO1). Dacarbazine induced only caspase-independent apoptosis, which may explain why it is less cytotoxic to melanoma cells than compounds 3, 4 and 5.

Synthesis of Chimeric Thiazolo-Nootkatone Derivatives as Potent Antimicrobial Agents.

Nootkatone, an approved insecticide, is a well-known natural product from grapefruit. A series of fused-thiazole derivatives of nootkatone have been synthesized, and these new compounds were tested against several strains of bacteria. Some of these compounds are found to be potent antimicrobial agents against Staphylococcus aureus and Enterococcus faecium with minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) values as low as 1.56 µg/mL. The lead compound is bactericidal and very potent against S. aureus persisters. These compounds are nontoxic to human cancer cell lines at 10 µm concentration.

Benign Synthesis of Fused-thiazoles with Enone-based Natural Products and Drugs for Lead Discovery.

In an effort to synthesize a library of bioactive molecules, we present an efficient synthesis of fused-thiazole derivatives of natural products and approved drugs by using an environmentally usable solvent, acetic acid, and without any external reagent. Cholestenone, ethisterone, progesterone, and nootkatone-derived epoxyketones have been utilized to synthesize 50 novel compounds. The plausible mechanism of the reaction has been determined by theoretical calculation using M06-2X/6-31+G(d,p). These novel molecules have been tested against cancer cell lines and pathogenic bacterial strains. Several ethisterone-based fused-thiazole compounds are found to be potent growth inhibitors of cancer cell lines at submicromolar concentrations.

Synthesis of 4,4'-(4-Formyl-1H-pyrazole-1,3-diyl)dibenzoic Acid Derivatives as Narrow Spectrum Antibiotics for the Potential Treatment of Acinetobacter Baumannii Infections.

Acinetobacter baumannii has emerged as one of the most lethal drug-resistant bacteria in recent years. We report the synthesis and antimicrobial studies of 25 new pyrazole-derived hydrazones. Some of these molecules are potent and specific inhibitors of A. baumannii strains with a minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) value as low as 0.78 µg/mL. These compounds are non-toxic to mammalian cell lines in in vitro studies. Furthermore, one of the potent molecules has been studied for possible in vivo toxicity in the mouse model and found to be non-toxic based on the effect on 14 physiological blood markers of organ injury.

Design and synthesis of 4-[4-formyl-3-(2-naphthyl)pyrazol-1-yl]benzoic acid derivatives as potent growth inhibitors of drug-resistant Staphylococcus aureus.

We report the synthesis and antimicrobial studies of a new series of naphthyl-substituted pyrazole-derived hydrazones. Many of these novel compounds are potent growth inhibitors of several strains of drug-resistant bacteria. These potent compounds have inclined growth inhibitory properties for planktonic Staphylococcus aureus and Acinetobacter baumannii, and its drug-resistant variants with minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) as low as 0.78 and 1.56 µg ml-1, respectively. These compounds also show potent activity against S. aureus and A. baumannii biofilm formation and eradication properties. Time Kill Assay shows that these compounds are bactericidal for S. aureus and bacteriostatic for A. baumannii. The probable mode of action is the disruption of the bacterial cell membrane. Furthermore, potent compounds are nontoxic to human cell lines at several fold higher concentrations than the MICs.

Synthesis and Antimicrobial Studies of Coumarin-Substituted Pyrazole Derivatives as Potent Anti-Staphylococcus aureus Agents.

In this paper, synthesis and antimicrobial studies of 31 novel coumarin-substituted pyrazole derivatives are reported. Some of these compounds have shown potent activity against methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) with minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) as low as 3.125 µg/mL. These molecules are equally potent at inhibiting the development of MRSA biofilm and the destruction of preformed biofilm. These results are very significant as MRSA strains have emerged as one of the most menacing pathogens of humans and this bacterium is bypassing HIV in terms of fatality rate.

Synthesis and Antimicrobial Studies of 4-[3-(3-Fluorophenyl)-4-formyl-1H-pyrazol-1-yl]benzoic Acid and 4-[3-(4-Fluorophenyl)-4-formyl-1H-pyrazol-1-yl]benzoic Acid as Potent Growth Inhibitors of Drug-Resistant Bacteria.

Microbial resistance to antibiotics is an urgent and worldwide concern. Several pyrazole-derived hydrazones were synthesized by using benign reaction conditions. Several of these molecules are potent growth inhibitors of drug-resistant strains of Staphylococcus aureus and Acinetobacter baumannii with minimum inhibitory concentration values as low as 0.39 µg/mL. Furthermore, these molecules are nontoxic to human cells at high concentrations. Some of these molecules were tested for their ability to disrupt the bacterial membrane by using the SYTO-9/propidium iodide (BacLight) assay.

Synthesis of Hydrazone Derivatives of 4-[4-Formyl-3-(2-oxochromen-3-yl)pyrazol-1-yl]benzoic acid as Potent Growth Inhibitors of Antibiotic-resistant Staphylococcus aureus and Acinetobacter baumannii.

Microbial resistance to drugs is an unresolved global concern, which is present in every country. Developing new antibiotics is one of the guidelines of the Centers for Disease Control and Preventions (CDC) to combat bacterial resistance to drugs. Based on our lead molecules, we report the synthesis and antimicrobial studies of 27 new pyrazole derivatives. These new coumarin-pyrazole-hydrazone hybrids are readily synthesized from commercially available starting materials and reagents using benign reaction conditions. All the synthesized molecules were tested against 14 Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacterial strains. Several of these molecules have been found to be potent growth inhibitors of several strains of these tested bacteria with minimum inhibitory concentrations as low as 1.56 µg/mL. Furthermore, active molecules are non-toxic in in vitro and in vivo toxicity studies.

Methods for Hydroxamic Acid Synthesis.

Substituted hydroxamic acid is one of the most extensively studied pharmacophores because of their ability to chelate biologically important metal ions to modulate various enzymes, such as HDACs, urease, metallopeptidase, and carbonic anhydrase. Syntheses and biological studies of various classes of hydroxamic acid derivatives have been reported in numerous research articles in recent years but this is the first review article dedicated to their synthetic methods and their application for the synthesis of these novel molecules. In this review article, commercially available reagents and preparation of hydroxylamine donating reagents have also been described.

Synthesis and Evaluation of Baylis-Hillman Reaction Derived Imidazole and Triazole Cinnamates as Antifungal Agents.

Allylic acetates derived from Baylis-Hillman reaction undergo efficient nucleophilic isomerization with imidazoles and triazoles to provide imidazolylmethyl and triazolylmethyl cinnamates stereoselectively. Antifungal evaluation of these derivatives against Cryptococcus neoformans exhibits good minimum inhibitory concentration values. These compounds exhibit low toxicity in proliferating MCF-7 breast cancer cell line. Structure activity relationship studies indicate that halogenated aromatic derivatives provide better antifungal activity.

Benign Synthesis of Thiazolo-androstenone Derivatives as Potent Anticancer Agents.

An unprecedented reaction of thiourea derivatives with 6ß-bromoandrostenedione has been discovered for the formation of aminothiazolo-androstenones via a simple, safer, cascade protocol that enables the syntheses of novel molecules by using readily available reagents. The reaction mechanism of product formation has been rationalized by density functional theory calculations. This benign methodology accentuates a domino protocol deploying a renewable solvent, ethanol, while generating novel compounds that display potent growth inhibitory effects in in vitro studies for several cancer cell lines at submicromolar concentrations.

Hexafluoroisopropanol-Mediated Domino Reaction for the Synthesis of Thiazolo-androstenones: Potent Anticancer Agents.

A cascade reaction of thioamides with 6ß-bromoandrostenedione in hexafluoroisopropanol formed substituted thiazolo-androstenones. This is a simple and mild protocol to synthesize novel molecules by using readily available reagents and substrates. Feasibility of the reaction has been rationalized by density functional theory calculations. Moreover, these compounds are potent growth inhibitors of colon, central nervous system, melanoma, ovarian, and renal cancer cell lines with 50% growth inhibition values as low as 1.04 µM.

Modular synthesis of thiazoline and thiazole derivatives by using a cascade protocol.

Thiazolines and thiazoles are an integral part of numerous natural products, a number of drugs, and many useful molecules such as ligands for metal catalysis. We report the first common synthetic protocol for the synthesis of thiazoles and thiazolines. Novel molecules are efficiently synthesized by using readily available and inexpensive substrates. The reaction conditions are mild and pure products are obtained without work-up and column purification.