Starving Bacteria of Iron: A Potential Strategy to Disperse Bacterial Biofilms

Halogenated phenazines (HPs) are potent antimicrobial agents. A newly developed halogenated phenazine, HP-29, displays remarkable minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) of 0.08 μM against methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, MRSA. HP-29 eradicates preformed biofilm via iron starvation, is nontoxic to mammalian cell lines and is efficacious in wound infection models.