Antibacterial activities of aminoglycoside antibiotics-derived cationic amphiphiles. Polyol-modified neomycin B-, kanamycin A-, amikacin-, and neamine-based amphiphiles with potent broad spectrum antibacterial activity.

Cationic amphiphiles containing multiple positively charged amino functions define a structurally diverse class of antibacterials with broad-spectrum activity and different modes of action. Oligocationic amphiphiles have been used as antibiotics to treat infections and as antiseptics and disinfectants for decades with little or no occurrence of resistance. We have prepared a novel class of cationic amphiphiles termed aminoglycoside antibiotics-derived amphiphiles in which the polyol scaffold of the aminoglycosides neomycin B, kanamycin A, amikacin, and neamine has been uniformly decorated with hydrophobic residues in the form of polycarbamates and polyethers. Our results show that the nature of the polyol modification as well as the nature of the aminoglycoside antibiotics has a strong effect on the antibacterial potency. The most potent antibacterials are polyol-modified neomycin B-based amphiphiles containing unsubstituted aromatic rings. These analogues exhibit up to 256-fold enhanced antibacterial activity against resistant strains when compared to neomycin B while retaining most of their activity against neomycin B-susceptible strains.