The article evaluates the antimicrobial and antifungal properties of new salts based on boron. The evaluation of the antimicrobial properties of the new studied compounds revealed all of the salts to be highly effective antibacterial agents for four Gram-positive bacteria strains and antifungal agents for three Candida albicans strains.
One of the four Gram-positive bacteria strains tested was a life-threatening superbug methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) isolate, which is resistant to many commercial antimicrobial drugs.
The salts Na[ROC(O)Ph], Na[1-ROC(O)-1,12-C2B10H11], K2[1,4-(ROC(O))2-C6H4], and K2[1,12-(ROC(O))2-1,12-C2B10H10], where R is the cobaltabis(dicarbollide)-diethylene glycol group [3,3′-Co(8-(OCH2CH2OCH2CH2)-1,2-C2B9H10)(1′,2′-C2B9H11)]−, were synthesized from the corresponding carboxylate salt and the zwitterion [3,3′-Co(8-(CH2CH2O)2-1,2-C2B9H10)(1′,2′-C2B9H11)]. The dianion in K2[1,12-(ROC(O))2-1,12-C2B10H10] showed at least one K+ cation to be tightly bound to the dianion via K···O and K···H–B interactions with both p-carborane and cobaltabis(dicarbollide) clusters on the basis of NMR and MS data and support of hybrid-DFT computations.
An evaluation of the antimicrobial properties of these compounds revealed all of the salts to be highly effective antibacterial agents for four Gram-positive bacteria strains (standard minimum inhibitory concentration, MIC, of 1 mg/L for Na[ROC(O)Ph]; Na[3]) and antifungal agents for three Candida albicans strains (MIC 4 mg/L for the salts K2[4] and K2[6]). One of the four Gram-positive bacteria strains tested was a life-threatening superbug methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) isolate, which is resistant to many commercial antimicrobial drugs.
The cobaltabis(dicarbollide) derivative Na[3] has a remarkable inhibitory effect on the MRSA strain with an MIC of only 1 mg/L and a minimum bactericidal concentration (MBC) of 2 mg/L, thus suggesting its potential as an antibacterial agent against MRSA.
