STOCKHOLM, Sweden: Researchers at Karolinska Institutet, the University of Bonn and the Umeå University have recently identified a new group of molecules that produces an antibacterial effect against many antibiotic-resistant bacteria.
Elisabeth Reithuber, the lead author of the research, and colleagues conducted the study to develop new, effective antibiotics with few side effects since the properties of the molecules can easily be altered chemically.
There is a great need to find new antibacterial substances as there has been increasing resistance to antibiotics at an alarming rate.
Newer antibiotics such as daptomycin bind to lipid II, a particular molecule possessed and needed by all the bacteria to build cell walls, in contrast to penicillin that inhibits enzymes building up the bacterial cell wall.
The researchers have targeted this lipid molecule. They have identified the first small antibacterial compounds that work by binding to Lipid II.
The researchers have experimented with many chemical compounds for their ability to lyse pneumococci, bacteria that have been the most common cause of community-acquired pneumonia. They discovered that one group of molecules called THCz inhibits the formation of the bacteria's cell wall by binding to lipid II. These molecules could also inhibit the formation of the sugar capsule that pneumococci need to escape the immune system and cause disease.
THCz has shown an antibacterial effect against many antibiotic-resistant bacteria, such as Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococci (MRSA), Penicillin-Resistant Pneumococci (PNSP) and Vancomycin-Resistant Enterococci (VRE).
Moreover, they have found no resistant bacterial mutants against THCz, which proved out to be promising.
The research 'THCz – Small molecules with antimicrobial activity that block cell wall lipid intermediates' has recently been published in the scientific journal PNAS.
