The continued development of new antimicrobial structures is crucial for slowing the spread of bacterial disease and resistance. Our group is working towards the preparation and antimicrobial assessment of a series of alkylated bipyridium compounds.  Such compounds are widely employed for their useful reduction-oxidation properties, and are commonly known as viologens due to their coloration upon reduction.  We have prepared a series of mono-and bis-alkylated analogs of bipyridines to investigate structure-activity relationships in their inhibition of Gram positive and Gram negative bacteria.  The cationic compounds prepared were conventional (one cationic head, one non-polar tail), bicephalic (two heads, one tail), or gemini (two heads, two tails) in their amphiphilic structure.  The rapid synthesis of antimicrobials with low micromolar MIC levels portends well for continued optimization.

Antibacterial bipyridinium amphiphiles with conventional, bicephalic, and gemini architectures

244th National Meeting (2012)

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