Friday, December 6, 2:05pm – 2:25pm via Zoom Meeting ID: 921 0377 3127 Passcode: 879566
Darien Allen
Dr. Amanda Wolfe
There are many challenges in modern day life, and one defined problem that currently grows is the infection of recovering individuals that are struggling to regain their strength. Antibiotic resistance makes the methods and medicines used to kill certain infectious bacteria less and less effective. Antibiotic resistance came to be through periodical evolution of bacteria after treatment. It has become difficult to treat and there are a few different ways that a bacterium can reduce the effectiveness of antibiotics. Through efflux pumps, bacteria can keep the concentrations of medicine within themselves low. Bacteria can also develop alterations in the components of the binding sites or changes of permeability using the membrane, degradation enzymes that break down the antibiotics, as well as changing the conformational state of the drug to mollify its effects. We plan to work towards creating new antibiotics to target ATP synthase. This target was chosen because of how integral it is to living cells and its vulnerability in our pathogens of interest. We synthesize new molecules that resemble old antibiotics and have the capability to permeate membranes of P. aeruginosa and E. coli. We have found that it is best to have primary and positive amines, as well as high overall charges. With this information I have created a new quinolone base through a Vilsmeier-Haack reaction, creating new pathways to possible analogs, which led me to do a reductive amination then a Suzuki addition of a boronic acid.