Novel bisbenzamidines as potential drug candidates for the treatment of Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia.
Vanden Eynde JJ, Mayence A, Huang TL, Collins MS, Rebholz S, Walzer PD, Cushion MT.
A series of pentamidine congeners has been synthesized and screened for their in vitro activity against Pneumocystis carinii. Among the tested compounds, bisbenzamidines linked by a flexible pentanediamide or hexanediamide chain (7 and 9) emerged as exceptionally potent agents that were more effective and less toxic than pentamidine in the assays described in this study.