Read: 1476, From 2015-01-17 19:13:30

Antibiotic resistance is spreading faster than the introduction of new compounds into clinical practice, causing a public health crisis. Most antibiotics were produced by screening soil microorganisms, but this limited resource of cultivable bacteria was overmined by the 1960s.

Authors report a new antibiotic named teixobactin, that inhibits cell wall synthesis by binding to a highly conserved motif of lipid II (precursor of peptidoglycan) and lipid III (precursor of cell wall teichoic acid). The properties of this compound suggest a path towards developing antibiotics that are likely to avoid development of resistance.

http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nature14098.html