Ternary ligand-zinc-hydroxamate complexes.

Because of the importance of the hydroxamic acid functional group in zinc protease inhibitors, we have measured the stability constants of the ternary complex LMG, where L is series of tridentate and tetradentate ligands containing amino, carboxylate, pyridyl, and/or imidazolyl groups as enzyme models and G is the guest molecule, acetohydroxamate or N-methylacetohydroxamate. All measurements were determined by pH titration which gave reproducible and reasonable results. A general correlation between binding of LMG and that of LM showed ligands that strongly chelated zinc gave less LMG formation. Surprisingly, no correlation was observed between ligand charge and LMG formation even though the guest, acetohydroxamate, is anionic. The pH value of the maximum formation of the ternary complex is also correlated to the acidity of zinc-bound water; more acidic zinc-bound water results in a maximum ternary complex formation at lower pH value.

Synthesis and biological activity of new 5-O-sugar modified ketolide and 2-fluoro-ketolide antibiotics.

A series of new triazole-containing ketolides and 2-fluoro-ketolides in which the 5-O-desosamine was replaced by unnatural sugars were synthesized and evaluated against relevant macrolide-sensitive and macrolide-resistant respiratory pathogens. Excellent in vitro antibacterial activities were demonstrated for ketolide analogues having the 6'-OBz-3'-dimethylamino-glucose and 6'-OBz-4'-deoxy-3'-dimethylamino-glucose substituents.

Stability and acidity constants for ternary ligand-zinc-hydroxo complexes of tetradentate tripodal ligands.

Four series of tetradentate tripodal ligands containing pyridyl, 2-imidazolyl, 4-imidazolyl, amino, and/or carboxylic groups were synthesized as hydrolytic zinc enzyme models in order to elucidate the effect of various coordination environments on zinc binding and the acidity of zinc-bound water. In aqueous solution, ligands with same charges showed a good correlation between zinc binding (log K(ZnL)) and zinc-bound water acidity (pK(a) of LZnOH(2)); the stronger the zinc binding, the higher the pK(a). The zinc-bound water acidity decreased as pyridyl groups were replaced by carboxylate groups. However, exchanging amino groups for carboxylate groups gave no change in zinc-bound water acidity regardless of the charge of the atoms in the inner coordination sphere of the metal ion. The results are consistent with the conventional notion that negatively charged carboxylate groups inherently increase zinc binding and result in decreasing zinc-bound water acidity, but also suggest that environmental effects may modulate or dominate control of acidity.