Activities of cholic acid-derived antimicrobial agents against multidrug-resistant bacteria.

Cationic cholic acid derivatives displayed potent and broad-spectrum activity against multidrug-resistant Gram-negative and -positive bacteria. Specific examples were effective permeabilizers of the outer membranes of many strains of multidrug-resistant Gram-negative bacteria and sensitized these to hydrophobic antibiotics. We also prepared a new cholic acid derivative with improved apparent selectivity for prokaryote membranes.