Antimicrobial Activity of Iron-Halide Complexes Against Gram-Positive and Gram-Negative Bacteria

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) has become one of the more serious threats to the global health. The emergence of bacteria resistant to antimicrobial substances decreases the potencies of current antibiotics. Consequently, there is an urgent and growing need for the developing of new classes of antibiotics. Three prepared novel iron complexes have a broad-spectrum antimicrobial activity with minimum bactericidal concentration (MBC) values ranging from 3.5 to 10 mM and 3.5 to 40 mM against Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria with antimicrobial resistance phenotype, respectively. Time-kill studies and quantification of the extracellular DNA confirmed the bacteriolytic mode of action of the iron-halide compounds. Additionally, the novel complexes showed significant antibiofilm activity against the tested pathogenic bacterial strains at concentrations lower than the MBC. The cytotoxic effect of the complexes on different mammalian cell lines show sub-cytotoxic values at concentrations lower than the minimum bactericidal concentrations.