Abstract

Acinetobacter baumannii, identified by the World Health Organization (WHO) as one of the first batches of antibiotic-resistant bacteria in urgent need of new antibiotics, poses a great threat to global health. Nitrofurantoin is a kind of broad-spectrum antibacterial drug, which is usually used to treat urinary tract infections (UTIs) in clinics. A. baumannii is one of the causes of UTIs, while Nitrofurantoin itself does not show an antibacterial effect on A. baumannii. We have designed and synthesized a series of new derivatives based on the chemical structure of Nitrofurantoin. Some of them have strong antibacterial activity against Gram-negative pathogens. Among them, compounds 2 and 16 have a minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) of 4 µM against A. baumannii, with low cytotoxicity and hemolytic activity. These results suggest that compounds 2 and 16 may serve as potential antimicrobial agents for treating infections caused by A. baumannii.