With only two new classes of antibiotics developed in the last 40 years, novel antibiotics are desperately needed to combat the growing problem of multidrug-resistant and extensively drug resistant bacteria, particularly Gram-negative bacteria. Described in this letter is the synthesis and antibiotic activity of 1,2,4-triazolidine-3-thiones as narrow spectrum antibiotics. Optimization of the 1,2,4-triazolidine-3-thione scaffold identified a small molecule with potent antibiotic activity against multiple strains of multidrug-resistant and extensively drug-resistant Acinetobacter baumannii. This small molecule also shows single dose, in vivo activity in a Galleria mellonella infection model with A. baumannii and represents a promising start in the development of a class of drugs that can target this bacterial pathogen.
Keywords: Acinetobacter baumannii; antibiotic resistance; antibiotics.