About the Authors

Emanuele M. Gargano

Affiliation Pharmaceutical and Medicinal Chemistry, Saarland University, Saarbrücken, Germany

Giuseppe Allegretta

Affiliation Helmholtz Institute for Pharmaceutical Research Saarland, Saarbrücken, Germany

Enrico Perspicace

Affiliation Pharmaceutical and Medicinal Chemistry, Saarland University, Saarbrücken, Germany

Angelo Carotti

Affiliation Dipartimento Farmaco-Chimico, Università degli Studi di Bari, Bari, Italy

Chris Van Koppen

Affiliation ElexoPharm GmbH, Saarbrücken, Germany

Martin Frotscher

Affiliation Pharmaceutical and Medicinal Chemistry, Saarland University, Saarbrücken, Germany

Sandrine Marchais-Oberwinkler

rolf.hartmann@helmoltz-hzi.de (RWH); s.marchais@mx.uni-saarland.de (SMO)

Affiliations Pharmaceutical and Medicinal Chemistry, Saarland University, Saarbrücken, Germany, Helmholtz Institute for Pharmaceutical Research Saarland, Saarbrücken, Germany

Rolf W. Hartmann

rolf.hartmann@helmoltz-hzi.de (RWH); s.marchais@mx.uni-saarland.de (SMO)

Affiliations Pharmaceutical and Medicinal Chemistry, Saarland University, Saarbrücken, Germany, Helmholtz Institute for Pharmaceutical Research Saarland, Saarbrücken, Germany

Competing Interests

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist. Chris Van Koppen is an employee of Elexopharm GmbH. He was in charge of the biological testing of the compounds. This work was based on a scientific collaboration between Elexopharm GmbH, the Saarland University and the Helmholtz Institute for Pharmaceutical Research Saarland. This does not alter the authors' adherence to PLOS ONE policies on sharing data and materials related to this study.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: EMG SMO. Performed the experiments: EMG GA EP CVK. Analyzed the data: EMG SMO. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: EMG EP. Wrote the paper: EMG AC SMO MF RWH.