AsianScientist (Sep. 6, 2016) – Scientists in Hong Kong have successfully synthesized teixobactin, an antibiotic discovered last year and considered a breakthrough in antibacterial drug research. Their findings were published in Nature Communications.
Antibiotic resistance is a pressing global public health concern due to the misuse and overuse of antibiotics around the world. However, very few pharmaceutical companies are developing new antibiotics due to the lower profit margin compared to medicines used to treat diabetes and cardiovascular diseases. In fact, no new antibiotics have been introduced commercially over the last decade.
A team of researchers led by Dr. Li Xuechen at the University of Hong Kong (HKU) has became one of the fastest groups in the world to complete the chemical synthesis of teixobactin, which has been shown to kill a range of pathogens without detectable resistance, including methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus, and Mycobacterium tuberculosis.
As promising as it is, teixobactin is not perfect, and its clinical properties can be improved via structural modification. Collaborating with a chemist from the University of Central Florida in the US, the researchers used an efficient strategy to generate ten promising teixobactin derivatives in a fast and combinatory manner. For these, a US provisional patent has been filed.
The scientists now aim to synthesize 100 different teixobactin derivatives within two years.
The article can be found at: Jin et al. (2016) Total Synthesis of Teixobactin.
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Source: University of Hong Kong; Photo: Pixabay.
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