Chemistry
Among the mostimportant broad-spectrum antibiotics
are members of the tetracycline family. Nine such
compounds— tetracycline, rolitetracycline,
oxytetracycline, chlortetracycline, demeclocycline,
meclocycline, methacycline, doxycycline, and
minocycline—have been introduced into medical use.
Several others possess antibiotic activity.
The tetracyclines are obtained by fermentation
procedures from Streptomyces spp. or by chemical
transformations of the natural products
3.
The stereochemistry ofthe tetracyclines is very
complex. Carbon atoms 4, 4a, 5, 5a, 6, and 12a are
potentially chiral, depending on substitution.
Oxytetracycline and doxycycline, each with a 5α-
hydroxyl substituent, have six asymmetric centers; the
others, lacking chirality at C-5, have only five.
Structure of theTetracyclines
The tetracyclines are amphoteric compounds, forming salts with either acids or
bases.
In neutral solutions, these substances exist mainly as zwitterions.
The unusual structural groupings in the tetracyclines produce
three acidity constants in aqueous solutions of the acid
Salts (pKa1 pKa2 pKa3).
6.
Strong acids andstrong bases attack tetracyclines
with a hydroxyl group on C-6, causing a loss in
activity through modification of the C ring.
Strong acids produce dehydration through a reaction
involving the 6-hydroxyl group and the 5a-hydrogen.
The double bond thus formed between positions 5a and
6 induces a shift in the position of the double bond
between C-11a and C-12 to a position between C-11
and C-11a, forming the more energetically favored
resonant system of the naphthalene group found in the
inactive anhydrotetracyclines.
7.
Bases promote areaction between the 6- hydroxyl
group and the ketone group at the 11-position,
causing the bond between the 11 and 11a atoms to
cleave, forming the lactone ring found in the inactive
isotetracycline.
These two unfavorable reactions stimulated research
that led to the development of the more stable and
longer acting compounds 6-deoxytetracycline,
methacycline, doxycycline, and minocycline.
Stable chelate complexesare formed by the
tetracyclines with many metals, including calcium,
magnesium, and iron.
Such chelates are usually very insoluble in water,
accounting for the impaired absorption of most (if not
all) tetracyclines in the presence of milk; calcium-,
magnesium-, and aluminum-containing antacids; and
iron salts. Soluble alkalinizers, such as sodium
bicarbonate, also decrease the GI absorption of the
tetracyclines.
The affinity of tetracyclines for calcium causes them
to be incorporated into newly forming bones and teeth
as tetracycline–calcium orthophosphate complexes
10.
Mechanism of Actionand Resistance
Tetracyclines are specific inhibitors of bacterial protein
synthesis. They bind to the 30S ribosomal subunit and,
thereby, prevent the binding of aminoacyl tRNA to the
mRNA–ribosome complex.
Three biochemically distinct mechanisms of resistance to
tetracyclines have been described in bacteria:
(a) efflux mediated by trans membrane-spanning, active-
transport proteins that reduces the intracellular tetracycline
concentration
(b) ribosomal protection, in which the bacterial protein
synthesis apparatus is rendered resistant to the action of
tetracyclines by an inducible cytoplasmic protein
(c)enzymatic oxidation.
11.
Spectrum of Activity
Thetetracyclines have the broadest spectrum of
activity of any known antibacterial agents. They are
active against a wide range of Gram-positive and
Gram-negative bacteria, spirochetes, mycoplasma,
rickettsiae, and chlamydiae.
Resistance to tetracyclines among both Gram-positive
and Gram-negative bacteria is relatively common.
12.
Structure–Activity Relationships
1. Allderivatives containing fewer than four rings are inactive or nearly inactive.
2. The simplest tetracycline derivative that retains the characteristic broad-spectrum
activity associated with this antibiotic class is 6-demethyl-6-deoxytetracycline.
3. The enolized tricarbonylmethane system at C-1 to C-3 must be intact for good
activity.
4. Replacement of the amide at C-2 with other functions
(e.g., aldehyde or nitrile) reduces or abolishes activity.
5. Mono alkylation of the amide nitrogen reduces activity proportionately to the size
of the alkyl group.
14.
6. The dimethylamino group at the 4-position must have the α- orientation: 4-
epitetracyclines are very much less active than the natural isomers.
7. Removal of the 4-dimethylamino group reduces activity even further.
8. Activity is largely retained in the primary and N-methyl secondary amines but
rapidly diminishes in the higher alkylamines.
9. A cis-A/B-ring fusion with a β -hydroxyl group at C-12a is apparently also
essential.
10. Esters of the C-12a hydroxyl group are inactive, with the exception of the
formyl ester, which readily hydrolyzes in aqueous solutions.
11. Alkylation at C-11a also leads to inactive compounds
15.
12. Dehydrogenation toform a double bond between C-
5a and C-11a markedly decreases activity, as does
aromatization of ring C to form anhydrotetracyclines.
13. substituents at positions 5, 5a, 6, 7, 8, and 9,
representing the largely hydrophobic “northern and
western” faces of the molecule, can be modified with
varying degrees of success, resulting in retention and,
sometimes, improvement of antibiotic activity.
14. A 5-hydroxyl group, as in oxytetracycline and
doxycycline, may influence pharmacokinetic
properties but does not change antimicrobial activity.
16.
15. Acid-stable 6-deoxytetracyclinesand 6- demethyl-
6-deoxytetracyclines have been used to prepare
various mono substituted and di substituted derivatives
by electrophilic substitution reactions at C-7 and C-9
of the D ring.
16. The more useful results have been achieved with
the introduction of substituents at C-7.
17. Oddly, strongly electron withdrawing groups (e.g.,
chloro [lortetracycline] and nitro) and strongly
electron-donating groups (e.g., dimethyl amino
[minocycline]) enhance activity.
17.
18. The mostfruitful site for semisynthetic
modification of the tetracyclines has been the 6-
position. Neither the 6α-methyl nor the 6α-hydroxyl
group is essential for antibacterial activity.
19. Polar substituents (i.e., hydroxyl groups) at C-5
and C-6 decrease lipid versus water solubility of the
tetracyclines.
The 6-position is, however, considerably more
sensitive than the 5-position to this effect. Nonpolar
substituents have the opposite effect.
19.
Products
Tetracycline
Tetracycline has becomethe most popular antibiotic of
its group, largely because its plasma concentration
appears to be higher and more enduring than that of
either oxytetracycline or chlortetracycline.
The greater stabilityof methacycline, both in vivo
and in vitro, results from modification at C-6.
Removal of the 6-hydroxy group markedly
increases the stability of ring C to both acids and
bases, preventing the formation of isotetracyclines
by bases.
absence of the6-hydroxyl group produces a
compound that is very stable in acids and bases and
that has a long biological half-life.
In addition, it is absorbed very well from the GI
tract, thus allowing a smaller dose to be administered
24.
Minocycline Hydrochloride
Minocycline, 7-dimethylamino-6-demethyl-6-deoxytetracycline(Minocin, Vectrin),
the most potent tetracycline currently used in therapy, is obtained by reductive
methylation of 7-nitro-6-demethyl-6-deoxytetracycline. Because minocycline, like
doxycycline, lacks the 6-hydroxyl group, it is stable in acids and does not dehydrate
or rearrange to anhydro or lactone forms. It has a very long serum
half-life, resulting from slow urinary excretion and moderate
protein binding.
25.
Newer tetracyclines
substituted inthe aromatic (D) ring in an effort to discover analogs that might be
effective against resistant strains. Glycylcyclines, a class of 9-
dimethylglycylamino-(DMG)-substituted tetracyclines were discovered. The first
of these to be marketed was tigecycline.