A marked increase in prevalence of multi-drug resistance in disease-causing Gram-positive G+ve (inter alia Staphylococcus aureus, Enterococcus spp., Streptococcus pneumoniae, Clostridium difficile, Mycobacterium tuberculosis) and Gram-negative bacteria (inter alia Klebsiella spp., Neisseria gonorrhoeae, Acinetobacter spp., Campylobacter spp., Enterobacter spp., Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Salmonella spp., Shigella spp.) has coincided with an unprecedented global decline in investment in new anti-infective drugs. There are few currently registered alternatives for multidrug resistant (MDR) bacterial infections, forcing clinicians to consider older generation drugs such as colistin with narrow spectrum and considerable potential for toxic side-effects. In addition, there are fewer novel classes of anti-infective therapeutics moving through the drug development pipeline.
Since the year 2000, a period of almost 15 years, only 5 novel mode of action (MOA) antibacterial agents have been approved by the US FDA—linezolid (an oxazolidinone) in 2000, daptomycin (a lipopeptide) in 2003, retapamulin (a pleuromutilin) in 2007, fidaxomicin (a macrolide tiacumicin) in 2011, and bedaquiline (a diarylquinoline) in 2012. No novel MOA antibacterial agents were approved in 2013 and to date in 2014 only tedizolid and dalbavancin, both analogues of existing classes, have been recommended for approval in the US. While there are more than 300 anti-infective medicines in various stages of development, the large majority of these medicines are previously approved antibacterial compounds or their derivatives that are undergoing studies for new indications.
Furthermore, the prevalence of multidrug-resistance in animal-specific pathogens together with greater regulation of the registration and usage of antimicrobials in animals, has caused veterinarians to become increasingly reliant on the traditional classes of antimicrobial agents. The risk of transfer of MDR zoonotic organisms from animals to humans has also led to calls for further restrictions on the usage of some recently registered antibacterial drugs such as the fluoroquinolones and the third and fourth generation cephalosporins.
Epidemiology of Antibacterial Resistance Development in Pathogens of Humans and Animals
Much of the evolution in resistance development is driven by changes in the epidemiology of key MDR organisms. Once only restricted to human hospitals and aged care facilities, methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) strains are now being isolated from the community in alarming proportions. Furthermore, community-acquired MRSA strains are more likely to carry the Panton-Valentine leukocidin (PVL) toxin, a virulence factor linked to skin and soft tissue lesions as well as a rapid, fulminating, necrotizing pneumonia with significant associated mortality. Recently MRSA strains have become host-adapted in several key animal species including livestock, horses and companion animals and regular cases of human-to-animal and animal-to-human transfer are being documented. This has important consequences for strain transmission and public health. A recent survey of 751 Australian veterinarians for MRSA nasal carriage found that a remarkable 21.4% of equine veterinarians were MRSA-positive compared to 4.9% of small animal veterinarians and 0.9% of veterinarians with little animal contact. These ecological shifts of MRSA together with the emergence of resistance to new drugs developed specifically for MRSA such as linezolid, confirm that new MRSA anti-infectives are urgently needed. Furthermore, hospitals that use vancomycin for treating MRSA then have to contend with outbreaks of vancomycin-resistant enterococci (VRE) infections in their patients, once again with limited alternative antimicrobial choices.
The World Health Organisation has identified antibiotic resistance as one of the three major future threats to global health. A recent report from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimated that “in the United States, more than two million people are sickened every year with antibiotic-resistant infections, with at least 23,000 dying as a result.” The extra medical costs, in the USA alone, associated with treating and managing a single case of antibiotic-resistant infection are estimated to be between US$18,588 and US$29,069 per year resulting in an overall direct cost to the US health system of over US$20 billion annually. In addition, the cost to US households in terms of lost productivity is estimated at over US$35 billion per annum. Twenty five thousand patients in the European Union (EU) still die annually from infection with MDR bacteria despite many EU countries having world's best practice hospital surveillance and infection control strategies. The EU costs from health care expenses and lost productivity associated with MDR infections are estimated to be at least €1.5 billion per year.
There is an unmet clinical need for antibacterial agents with novel mechanisms of action to supplement and replace currently available antibacterial agents, the efficacy of which is increasingly undermined by antibacterial resistance mechanisms. There additionally remains a need for alternative antibacterials in the treatment of infection by multi-resistant bacteria. However, as reported by the Infectious Diseases Society of America and the European Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, few new drugs are being developed that offer promising results over existing treatments (Infectious Diseases Society of America 2010, Clinical Infectious Diseases, 50(8): 1081-1083).
Ayer W A & Villar J D F Can J Chem 63, 1161 (1985) describe an enolic natural product isolated from the fungus Lachnellula fuscosanguinea, which they term lachnellulic acid:

The compound is active against the Dutch Elm disease fungus. Note that the alkyl chain adjacent the enolic keto function is longer than the chain adjacent the lactone.
Kong et al, J. Nat. Prod. 2005 68, 920-923 describe natural products isolated from a Pseudomonas species associated with a Pacific marine sponge, which they term pseudopyronines A & B:

The compounds are described as having “moderate to poor” antibacterial activities, but are unstable and degrade to a hydroxyfuranone species. Note that the pyranone ring has two unsaturated bonds. In a related paper, Singh et al J Antibiotics 56 No 12 1033-1044 (2003), the antibacterial activity of the compounds is believed to derive from inhibition of the bacterial fatty acid biosynthesis pathway, in a somewhat similar fashion to the antibacterial agent triclosan.
Miyakado et al Chem Lett 10 1539-42 (1982) describes the isolation of natural products from the plant Podophyllum peltatum, which they term podoblastin A:

The compounds are said to be active against the fungus Pyricularia oryziae. Note that the alkyl chain adjacent the carbonyl is markedly longer than the alkyl chain adjacent the lactone.
The discussion of the background art set out above is intended to facilitate an understanding of the present invention only. The discussion is not an acknowledgement or admission that any of the material referred to is or was part of the common general knowledge as at the priority date of the application.