137987-84-9

A method of reducing the virulence of a bacterium that expresses accessory gene regulator A (AgrA) or an ortholog of AgrA includes administering to the bacterium an amount of a pharmaceutical composition effective to inhibit the synthesis of one or more virulence factors by the bacterium, the pharmaceutical composition including an AgrA antagonist.

Antibiotic resistance coupled with decreased development of new antibiotics necessitates the search for novel antibacterial agents. Antivirulence agents offer an alternative to conventional antibiotics. In this work, we report on a family of small-molecule antivirulence agents against methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), the most widespread bacterial pathogen. Structure-activity relationship studies led to the development of a concise synthesis of a 148-member biarylhydroxyketone library. An acylation bond-forming process afforded resorcinols (1) and aryloxy acetonitriles (2) as synthons. A Lewis-acid-activated Friedel-Crafts' acylation step involving a nitrile functionality of 2 by ZnCl2, followed by nucleophilic attack by 1 was executed to obtain biaryl hydroxyketones in excellent yields. A large number of products crystallized. This strategy affords a range of biarylhydroxyketones in a single step. This is the first collective synthetic study documenting access to this class of compounds through a single synthetic operation. In vitro efficacy of compounds in this library was evaluated by a rabbit erythrocyte hemolysis assay. The most efficacious compound, 4f-12, inhibits hemolysis by 98.1 ± 0.1% compared to control in the absence of the compound.

2,4-Dihydroxyphenoxyacetophenones were obtained by the reaction of resorcinol with phenoxyacetonitrile under the conditions of the Houben-Hoesch reaction. Their cyclization under the conditions of acid and alkaline catalysis gave new derivatives of 3-phen

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