Design, synthesis, anti-infective potency and mechanism study of novel Ru-based complexes containing substituted adamantane as antibacterial agents.

Infections caused by Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) are increasing difficult to treat because this pathogen is easily resistant to antibiotics. However, the development of novel antibacterial agents with high antimicrobial activity and low frequency of resistance remains a huge challenge. Here, building on the coupling strategy, an adamantane moiety was linked to the membrane-active Ru-based structure and then developed three novel metalloantibiotics: [Ru(bpy)(L)](PF) (Ru1) (bpy = 2,2-bipyridine, L = amantadine modified ligand), [Ru(dmb)(L)](PF) (Ru2) (dmb = 4,4'-dimethyl-2,2'-bipyridine) and [Ru(dpa)(L)](PF) (Ru3), (dpa = 2,2'-dipyridylamine). Notably, complex Ru1 was identified to be the best candidate agent, showing greater efficacy against S. aureus than most of clinical antibiotics and low resistance frequencies. Mechanism studies demonstrated that Ru1 could not only increase the permeability of bacterial cell membrane and then caused the leakage of bacterial contents, but also promoted the production of reactive oxygen species (ROS) in bacteria. Importantly, complex Ru1 inhibited the biofilm formation, exotoxin secretion and increased the potency of some clinical used antibiotics. In addition, Ru1 showed low toxic in vivo and excellent anti-infective efficacy in two animal infection model. Thus, Ru-based metalloantibiotic bearing adamantane moiety are promising antibacterial agents, providing a certain research basis for the future antibiotics research.