Synthesis and biological evaluation of novel pleuromutilin derivatives with nitrogen-containing heterocycles as antibacterial agents

A series of new pleuromutilins derivatives were designed and synthesized through coupling 2-aminothiazole ring of WL001 with different nitrogen-containing substituted heterocycles in the side chain. Their biological activities were evaluated against both Gram-positive and Gram-negative clinical bacteria in vitro. Most new compounds displayed specificity to certain strain of bacteria. Particularly, compounds with saturated nitrogen-containing heterocycles exhibited significant antibacterial activities (0.062 5-8 μg·mL^-1) superior or similar to those of amoxicillin, tiamulin and levofloxcin. Furthermore, treatment with 15a and 15b having piperidine or morpholine residues also could effectively inhibit Gram-negative bacteria. Therefore, our novel findings may provide a new insight into the design of novel pleuromutilin derivatives and lay the basis for further studies on the treatment of drug-resistance of pathogenic bacteria.