Zidovudine-β-Lactam Pronucleoside Strategy for Selective Delivery into Gram-Negative Bacteria Triggered by β-Lactamases.

Addressing antibacterial resistance is a major concern of the modern world. The development of new approaches to meet this deadly threat is a critical priority. In this article, we investigate a new approach to negate bacterial resistance: exploit the β-lactam bond cleavage by β-lactamases to selectively trigger antibacterial prodrugs into the bacterial periplasm.