Antimicrobial screening of a historical collection of over 140 000 small molecules

Most of the chemical compound collection (currently about 200 000), assembled at the N. D. Zelinsky Institute of Organic Chemistry over the past 30 years, has been screened for antimicrobial activity against five ESKAPE pathogens and two fungi at the University of Queensland on a charitable basis. A total of 2517 active molecules (MIC ≤ 32 μg ml–1) were found, of which about 10% are active at very low concentrations (MIC ≤ 1 μg ml–1). Structures of 142 012 compounds and experimental data on their antimicrobial activity are publicly available through the demo version of the CheD software and the public database of the Community for Open Antimicrobial Drug Discovery.