Antibacterial Activity of Amphiphiles Based on Indolyl-3-Carboxylic Acids and L-Lysine with an Ethylenediamine Linker

Abstract— Recently, due to the growth in bacterial infections resistant to antibiotics, there is an urgent need for developing alternative antibacterial drugs. Alkyl-indolyl-L-lysines are a promising class of compounds; their amphiphilic structure is crucial in antimicrobial efficacy. A scheme is developed and five new derivatives of indolylbutyric and indolylacetic acids containing a polar amino acid residue with an ethylenediamine linker binding alkyl fragments with different lengths are synthesized. The antibacterial activity of the new amphiphiles against gram-positive and gram-negative bacterial strains is evaluated. The minimum binding energy of the synthesized compounds with human serum albumin (HSA) is determined by molecular docking. A lower affinity of the studied objects in comparison with control indolmycin is shown.