Probing the Penetration of Antimicrobial Polymyxin Lipopeptides into Gram-Negative Bacteria

The dry antibiotic development pipeline coupled with the emergence of multidrug resistant Gram-negative 'superbugs' has driven the revival of the polymyxin lipopeptide antibiotics. Polymyxin resistance implies a total lack of antibiotics for the treatment of life-threatening infections. The lack of molecular imaging probes that possess native polymyxin-like antibacterial activity is a barrier to understanding the resistance mechanisms and the development of a new generation of polymyxin lipopeptides. Here we report the regioselective modification of the polymyxin B core scaffold at the N-terminus with the dansyl fluorophore to generate an active probe that mimics polymyxin B pharmacologically. Time-lapse laser scanning confocal microscopy imaging of the penetration of probe (1) into Gram-negative bacterial cells revealed that the probe initially accumulates in the outer membrane and subsequently penetrates into the inner membrane and finally the cytoplasm. The implementation of this polymyxin-mimetic probe will advance the development of platforms for the discovery of novel polymyxin lipopeptides with efficacy against polymyxin-resistant strains.