ZAP // Corre, C., Challis, G., Alkhalaf, L. et al Warwick University
A team of researchers has just identified a powerful new antibiotic. The important discovery was not made by exploring new territories, but by revisiting familiar ground.
Researchers from the University of Warwick, in the United Kingdom, and Monash University, in Australia, discovered a compound, called pre-metilenomicina C lactonawith important antibiotic properties.
Although it had never been detected before, the compound originates from a type of bacteria that scientists have been studying for decades.
The discovery was presented in a publication on Monday in Journal of the American Chemical Society.
The compound, which could help combat bacteria that have become increasingly resistant to modern treatmentsis actually a chemical intermediate that is created during manufacturing process for another antibioticdesignated methyleneomycin Aexplains .
“A Streptomyces coelicolora bacterium that produces methylenemycin A and pre-methylenemycin C lactone, is a model antibiotic-producing species that has been studied extensively since the 1950s“, says the chemist Lona Alkhalafresearcher at the University of Warwick and co-author of the article, at the university.
“Finding a new antibiotic in such a familiar organism was a real surprise”, adds the researcher.
In laboratory tests conducted by the investigators, pre-methylenemycin C lactone was shown to be 100 times more effective than methylenemycin A against Gram-positive bacteria, the kind that are becoming more adept at evading our current antibiotics.
In their study, the researchers had decided to take a closer look at methylenemycin A, modifying the genes used in the antibiotic’s assembly line, to understand what each one did.
The resulting compounds, described as biosynthetic intermediateswere then tested for their antibiotic activity.
“A methyleneomycin A was originally discovered 50 years ago and, although it has been synthesized several times, it appears that no one has tested the synthetic intermediates for antimicrobial activity”, explains the chemist Greg Challisfrom the University of Warwick and lead author of the study.
The team found that pre-methylenemycin C lactone was effective against the bacteria responsible for both Staphylococcus aureus methicillin-resistant (MRSA) hair Enterococcus resistant to vancomycin (VRE), two of the infections that have been shown to bemore problematic for existing antibiotics.
What is particularly promising is that bacteria Enterococcus exposed to pre-methylenemycin C lactone for 28 consecutive days did not develop resistance to the compound, suggesting that this can remain effective in the long term.
With experts increasingly concerned about antibiotic resistance, already responsible for millions of deaths each year, the need to new and resilient medicines To combat infections is urgent, as bacteria continue to evolve.
The researchers also see potential in examining the intermediates of other antibiotics to see if there are more compounds like this to discover. “This discovery suggests a new paradigm for the discovery of antibiotics”, concludes Challis.
