LONDON, May 2: Scientists, including one of Indian-origin, have successfully produced two synthetic derivatives of “game-changing” Teixobactin – the world’s first known antibiotic capable of destroying drug resistant bacteria.
Teixobactin, which kills a range of pathogens without detectable resistance, was isolated from microorganisms found in soil – the natural source of nearly all antibiotics developed since the 1940s, researchers said.
Last year, the discovery of the antibiotic Teixobactin by researchers in the US was hailed as a ‘game-changer’ in the fight against antimicrobial resistance, they said.
In order for it to be developed as a potential drug treatment, several versions of the antibiotic must be produced via chemical synthesis in order to overcome the hurdles of drug development.
Now, researchers from University of Lincoln in the UK have become the first group of scientists to synthetically produce two derivatives of Teixobactin.
“Teixobactin originally evolved in soil to kill the bacteria around it, so our challenge was to produce the antibiotic synthetically,” said Ishwar Singh from University of Lincoln.
“The method we created to do this uses commercially available ‘building blocks’ and has a single purification step,” said Singh.
“We are now able to present the total synthesis of two derivatives of Teixobactin,” he said.
“We have also been able to identify some of the properties of the antibiotic which are critical for its antimicrobial activities,” he said.
“This is a very important stepping stone towards an in-depth study of Teixobactin and the quest for synthesising similar molecules which could prove vital in our fight against drug resistant bacteria,” added Singh.
The bacteria against which Teixobactin is effective have, thus far, not shown any detectable resistance and given its mechanisms of attack, scientists are also confident that this is unlikely to occur in the future.
“The process of bringing an antibiotic to clinic is an extremely lengthy one and can often take around 10-15 years,” said Singh.
The findings were published in the Royal Society of Chemistry journal. (PTI)
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