Identification and characterization of an anti-pseudomonal dichlorocarbazol derivative displaying anti-biofilm activity

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Abstract

Pseudomonas aeruginosa strains resistant towards all currently available antibiotics are increasingly encountered, raising the need for new anti-pseudomonal drugs. We therefore conducted a medium-throughput screen of a small-molecule collection resulting in the identification of the N-alkylated 3,6-dihalogenocarbazol 1-(sec-butylamino)-3-(3,6-dichloro-9H-carbazol-9-yl)propan-2-ol (MIC = 18.5 μg mL−1). This compound, compound 1, is bacteriostatic towards a broad spectrum of Gram-positive and Gram-negative pathogens, including P. aeruginosa. Importantly, 1 also eradicates mature biofilms of P. aeruginosa. 1 displays no cytotoxicity against various human cell types, pointing to its potential for further development as a novel antibacterial drug.

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Acknowledgments

V.L., W.J.K. and T.S. are recipients of a fellowship from the Agency for Innovation by Science and Technology (IWT). K.T. acknowledges receipt of a post-doctoral fellowship from the ‘Industrial Research Fund’ (KU Leuven). This work was supported by the Interuniversity Attraction Poles Program initiated by the Belgian Science Policy Office, the European Commission’s seventh Framework Program (FP7/2007–2013) under the grant agreement COATIM (Project no. 278425) and the ‘Industrial Research Fund

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    Present address: Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, 3501 Civic Center Boulevard, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA.

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