Imidazole Derivatives and their Antibacterial Activity – a Mini-Review

Background:: The development of drug resistance by bacterial strains is a public health issue, being the main cause for the decrease in effectiveness of numerous antibiotics. In this context, it is essential to find new drugs with better antibacterial activity. Objective:: The authors proposed to cover relevant literature, published following the review article written by Rani et al., illustrating chemical structures and antibacterial activity of some imidazole derivatives. Method:: Approximately 100 scientific articles, presenting more than 150 compounds have been reviewed. The most relevant data have been extracted and systematically arranged in figures and tables. Results:: The reviewed studies used a broad number of bacterial strains, however Staphylococcus aureus as Gram-positive, and Escherichia coli as Gram-negative bacterial strains were most frequently used to assess the activity of these compounds. Conclusion:: Some of the compounds showed promising results against both Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacterial strains, thus further analysis should be performed in terms of toxicity, pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics. Additional screening of these imidazole derivatives could lead to useful compounds with potential broad-spectrum antibacterial activity against resistant pathogens.