Figure 1

Zinc potentiates antibiotic activity of vancomycin against vancomycin-resistant bacteria. (a) The effect of Zn(II), Cu(II) and Ni(II) on the activity of teicoplanin (T), vancomycin (V), bacitracin (B) and kanamycin (K) against wild-type S. coelicolor M600. (b) The effect of Zn(II) on the activity of teicoplanin (T), vancomycin (V), bacitracin (B) and kanamycin (K) against vancomycin-sensitive (Van^S) or vancomycin-resistant (Van^R) strains of S. coelicolor and E. faecalis. The concentration of each antibiotic used is listed in Supplementary Table 1. The table shows the effect of Zn(II) on MIC values (μg ml⁻¹) for vancomycin in resistant and sensitive strains.