Although a number of new antibiotics have been discovered in recent decades, our armory against infection is continually being depleted, as our microscopically small enemies are crafty warriors that develop resistance to current antibiotics. Multiresistant bacteria are a big problem, especially in hospitals.
Already weakened patients are easy victims, for which an infection that cannot be treated with antibiotics can quickly become life-threatening. What is needed are active agents that act on completely different sites in the physiological sequence of pathogens than current medicaments. Platensimycin, recently isolated from the mushroom Streptomyces platensis, is such an agent. A Californian team of researchers is now the first to synthesize this natural product completely in the laboratory - a crucial step on the way to a new class of antibiotics.
Platensimycin inhibits an important step of bacterial fatty acid biosynthesis and in this way paralyzes a broad spectrum of Gram-positive bacterial strains. Thus, this natural product in able to kill dangerous germs that have developed resistance not only to established antibiotics but also to standby products. Examples of these include various resistant strains of Staphylococcus aureus and Enterococcus faecium.