title: New fluoroquinolones: a class of potent antibiotics.
abstract: The discovery of antibiotics opened a new era in the treatment against several pathogenic microorganisms that can disable or kill humans. The appearance of the fluoroquinolones (based on nalidixic acid, 4-quinolone-3-carboxylates), in the early 1980's, gave a new impetus in the treatment of infectious diseases. Despite these favourable properties, the earlier fluoroquinolones had limited potency against some clinically important organisms, especially Gram-positive pathogens so that the development of resistance to these organisms has become a serious problem. Thus the development of new fluoroquinolones with a better pharmacokinetic profile, potency, broad spectrum of activity, solubility, prolonged serum half-life and oral and parenteral routes of administration has been a major focus on recent research. The increasing interest in this class led me to review the promising new fluoroquinolones in clinical trials.
authors.affiliation: FioCruz-Fundação Oswaldo Cruz, Instituto de Tecnologia em Fármacos-Far-Manguinhos, Rua Sizenando Nabuco, 100, Manguinhos, 21041-250--Rio de Janeiro-RJ, Brazil. mvndesouza@click21.com.br
authors.forename: Marcus Vinícius Nora
authors.initials: MV
authors.lastname: De Souza
mesh_terms: D000890:Anti-Infective Agents / Q000737:chemistry / Q000494:pharmacology*; D015195:Drug Design; D024881:Drug Resistance, Bacterial; D024841:Fluoroquinolones / Q000737:chemistry / Q000494:pharmacology*; D013329:Structure-Activity Relationship
chemical_list: D000890:Anti-Infective Agents; D024841:Fluoroquinolones