Imidazole Derivatives and their Antibacterial Activity - A Mini-Review

Background: The development of drug resistance by bacterial strains is a public health issue, being the main cause of the decrease in the effectiveness of numerous antibiotics. In this context, it is essential to find new drugs with better antibacterial activity. Objective: The authors proposed to cover relevant literature, published following the review article written by Rani et al., illustrating chemical structures and antibacterial activity of some imidazole derivatives. Method: Approximately 100 scientific articles presenting more than 150 compounds have been reviewed. The most relevant data have been extracted and systematically arranged in figures and tables. Results: The reviewed studies used a broad number of bacterial strains, however Staphylococcus aureus as Gram-positive, and Escherichia coli as Gram-negative bacterial strains were most frequently used to assess the activity of these compounds. Conclusion: Some of the compounds showed promising results against both Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacterial strains, thus further analysis should be performed in terms of toxicity, pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics. Additional screening of these imidazole derivatives could lead to useful compounds with potential broad-spectrum antibacterial activity against resistant pathogens.