Discovery of novel phenanthridone derivatives with anti-streptococcal activity

To address the growing health threat posed by drug-resistant pathogenic microorganisms, the development of novel antimicrobial medications with multiple mechanisms of action is in urgent demand. With traditional antibacterial drug resources challenging to push forward, developing new antibacterial drugs has become a hot spot in biomedical research. In this study, we tested the antibacterial activity of 119 phenanthridine derivatives via the antibacterial assay and obtained 5 candidates. The cytotoxicity assay showed one phenanthridine derivative, HCK20, was safe for mammalian cells below 125 µM. HCK20 was verified to possess significant antibacterial activity to Streptococcus spp., such as Streptococcus pneumoniae, Streptococcus agalactiae, Streptococcus suis, Streptococcus dysgalactiae, and Streptococcus equi with MICs ranging from 15 to 60 µM. Furthermore, we found that HCK20 probably achieved its bacterial inhibition by influencing the permeability of bacterial cell walls via interacting with Streptococcal penicillin-binding proteins (PBPs). Our results suggest that this phenanthridine derivative, HCK20, has great potential to become a novel antibacterial agent that can be a potent treatment for streptococcal infections.