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Quaternary Ammonium Salts and Their Antimicrobial Potential: Targets or Nonspecific Interactions?
Author(s) -
Tischer Maximilian,
Pradel Gabriele,
Ohlsen Knut,
Holzgrabe Ulrike
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
chemmedchem
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.817
H-Index - 100
eISSN - 1860-7187
pISSN - 1860-7179
DOI - 10.1002/cmdc.201100404
Subject(s) - antiseptic , disinfectant , antimicrobial , ammonium , chemistry , ammonium chloride , benzalkonium chloride , combinatorial chemistry , microbiology and biotechnology , organic chemistry , biology
For more than 50 years dequalinium chloride has been used successfully as an antiseptic drug and disinfectant, particularly for clinical purposes. Given the success of dequalinium chloride, several series of mono‐ and bisquaternary ammonium compounds have been designed and reported to have improved antimicrobial activity. Furthermore, many of them exhibit high activity against mycobacteria and protozoa, especially against plasmodia. This review discusses the structure–activity relationships and the modes of action of the various series of (bis)quaternary ammonium compounds.