Title:The Antibacterial Activity of Metal Complexes Containing 1,10- phenanthroline: Potential as Alternative Therapeutics in the Era of Antibiotic Resistance
Volume: 17
Issue: 11
Author(s): Livia Viganor, Orla Howe, Pauraic McCarron, Malachy McCann and Michael Devereux
Affiliation:
Keywords:
1, 10-phenanthroline, Metal complexes, Antibacterial activity, Antibiotic resistance, Alternative therapeutics.
Abstract: The “antibiotic era”, characterized by the overuse and misuse of antibiotics, over the last
half-century has culminated in the present critical “era of resistance”. The treatment of bacterial infections
is challenging because of a decline in the current arsenal of useful antibiotics and the slow
rate of new drug development. The discovery of a new gene (mcr-1) in 2015, which enables bacteria
to be highly resistant to polymyxins (such as colistin), the last line of antibiotic defence left, heralds a
new level of concern as this gene is susceptible to horizontal gene transfer, with alarming potential to
be spread between different bacterial populations, suggesting that the progression from “extensive
drug resistance” to “pan-drug resistance” may be inevitable. Clearly there is a need for the development
of novel classes of anti-bacterial agents capable of killing bacteria through mechanisms that are
different to those of the known classes of antibiotics. 1,10-phenanthroline (phen) is a heterocyclic organic
compound which exerts in vitro antimicrobial activity against a broad-spectrum of bacteria. The
antimicrobial activity of phen can be significantly modulated by modifying its structure. The development
of metal-phen complexes offers the medicinal chemist an opportunity to expand such structural
diversity by controlling the geometry and varying the oxidation states of the metal centre, with
the inclusion of appropriate auxiliary ligands in the structure, offering the opportunity to target different
biochemical pathways in bacteria. In this review, we summarize what is currently known about
the antibacterial capability of metal-phen complexes and their mechanisms of action.
