Various Novel Erythromycin Derivatives Obtained by Different Modifications: Recent Advance in Macrolide Antibiotics

The rapid emergence of drug resistance intensified the search for new antimicrobial agents, leading to lots of novel derivatives obtained from 14- and 15-membered macrolides by chemical modifications. Many of them exhibited enhanced antibacterial activity and expanded antibacterial spectrum. Especially some of them were found to be potent for the treatment of multi-drug-resistant bacterial infections. Besides, the other biological effects of macrolide derivatives were also found. In this article, we reviewed the recent advance in the novel macrolide derivatives designed by different structural modifications on erythronolide skeleton, cladinose and desosamine in the structures.