Ruthenium polypyridine complexes with triphenylamine groups as antibacterial agents against with membrane-disruptive mechanism.

Due to the emergence and wide spread of methicillin-resistant , the treatment of this kind of infection becomes more and more difficult. To solve the problem of drug resistance, it is urgent to develop new antibiotics to avoid the most serious situation of no drug available. Three new Ru complexes [Ru (dmob)PMA] (PF6) () [Ru (bpy)PMA] (PF6) () and [Ru (dmb)PMA] (PF6) () (dmob = 4,4'-dimethoxy-2,2'-bipyridine, bpy = 2,2'-bipyridine, dmb = 4,4'-dimethyl-2,2'-bipyridine and PMA = N-(4-(1H-imidazo [4,5-f] [1,10] phenanthrolin-2-yl) -4-methyl-N-(p-tolyl) aniline) were synthesized and characterized by 1H NMR, 13C NMR and HRMS. The detailed molecular structure of was determined by single crystal X-ray diffraction. Their antibacterial activities against () were obvious and showed the best antibacterial effect with the minimum inhibitory concentration value of 4 μg ml. Therefore, further study on its biological activity showed that can effectively inhibit the formation of biofilm and destroy cell membrane. hemolysis test showed that has almost negligible cytotoxicity to mammalian red blood cells. In the toxicity test of wax moth insect model, exhibited low toxicity . These results, combined with histopathological studies, strongly suggest that was almost non-toxic. In addition, the synergistic effect of with common antibiotics such as ampicillin, chloramphenicol, tetracycline, kanamycin and gentamicin on was detected by chessboard method. Finally, results revealed that could obviously promote the wound healing of infected mice.