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Updated: Sep 11, 2025

Line Shape Analysis of Dynamic NMR Spectra for Characterizing Coordination Sphere Rearrangements at a Chiral Rhenium Polyhydride Complex
Published on: July 27, 2022
Pinene-Based Chiral Bipyridine Ligands Drive Potent Antibacterial Activity in Rhenium(I) Complexes
Justine Horner1,2, Gozde Demirci1, Aurelien Crochet1
1Department of Chemistry, University of Fribourg, Chemin du Musée 9, CH-1700 Fribourg, Switzerland.
None:
Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) poses a critical global health threat by rendering existing antibiotics ineffective against infections, leading to increased mortality, prolonged illnesses, and higher healthcare costs. Developing new antibiotics is essential to combat resistant pathogens, safeguard modern medical procedures, and prevent a return to a pre-antibiotic era where common infections become untreatable. We report a series of chiral tricarbonyl rhenium(I) complexes incorporating enantiopure pinene-substituted bipyridine ligands (L#) of the general formula fac-[Re(CO)3L#X] and fac-[Re(CO)3L#Py]+ (where X = Cl or Br and Py = pyridine). These complexes were isolated as mixtures of two diastereomers, characterized by standard techniques, and evaluated for cytotoxic activity against methicillin-resistant and methicillin-sensitive Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA and MSSA). The results revealed notable antibacterial efficacy (MIC = 1.6 μM), reflected in high therapeutic indices (Ti > 10). In contrast, analogous complexes bearing non-chiral 2,2'-bipyridine ligands exhibited no activity, underscoring the critical role of chirality in modulating biological interactions at the molecular level. These findings highlight the potential of chiral Re(I) complexes as promising scaffolds for the development of more potent and selective antibacterial agents.
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