Antimicrobial Efficacy of Metal-Barbiturate Conjugates Against Pathogenic Strains of Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus

Resistance to commercially available antimicrobials is increasing at alarming rate therefore there is an urgent need of new antimicrobial compounds and materials with novel modes of action to tackle the problem of resistance in pathogenic gram positive and gram negative bacteria. The current study involves the design and synthesis of new molecular structures which should not resemble the basic molecular structures of the existing classes of antimicrobial agents in order to avoid the risks of cross resistance development. A total of 14 metal-barbiturate complexes (newly synthesized compounds) were evaluated for their antimicrobial properties against multiple drug resistance clinical isolates of S. aureus and E. coli. Broth dilution method was used to determine minimum inhibitory and bactericidal activity of the newly synthesized compounds. The results showed that the metal-barbiturate complexes with cobalt ions were more effective against E. coli and S. aureus as compared to other compounds. Moreover the activity of these compounds was higher against S. aureus as compared to E. coli which indicates species specific variable antimicrobial effects of these compounds.