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Antimicrobials

A new drug for resistant bugs

Nature Reviews Microbiology volume 13, pages 126–127 (2015)Cite this article

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Most antibiotics in clinical use were discovered by screening cultivable soil microorganisms, but this resource is limited and alternative synthetic approaches have had little success. As up to 99% of environmental bacteria are uncultured and are a potentially untapped reservoir of novel compounds, the authors developed a high-throughput, multichannel device called the iChip to screen previously uncultured soil bacteria. This approach involves isolating an individual bacterial cell in one of 96 chambers that is surrounded by a semi-permeable membrane; bacteria can then be grown in situ as they have access to the nurients and growth factors present in their natural environment.

The authors examined the antimicrobial activity of extracts obtained from 10,000 soil bacteria and found that an extract from a new species of the Gram-negative β-proteobacteria, provisionally named Eleftheria terrae, showed promising inhibitory activity against the Gram-positive pathogen Staphylococcus aureus. Structural analysis showed that the antimicrobial compound, termed teixobactin, has a unique chemical scaffold and thus represents a completely new antibiotic class.

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References

  1. Ling, L. L. et al. A new antibiotic kills pathogens without detectable resistance. Nature http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nature14098 (2015)

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Authors
  1. Christina Tobin Kåhrström
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Blair, J. M. A. et al. Molecular mechanisms of antibiotic resistance. Nature Rev. Microbiol. 13, 42–51 (2015)

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Kåhrström, C. A new drug for resistant bugs. Nat Rev Microbiol 13, 126–127 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrmicro3429

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