Discovery of MRSA active antibiotics using primary sequence from the human microbiome

  • John Chu
  • , Xavier Vila-Farres
  • , Daigo Inoyama
  • , Melinda Ternei
  • , Louis J. Cohen
  • , Emma A. Gordon
  • , Boojala Vijay B. Reddy
  • , Zachary Charlop-Powers
  • , Henry A. Zebroski
  • , Ricardo Gallardo-Macias
  • , Mark Jaskowski
  • , Shruthi Satish
  • , Steven Park
  • , David S. Perlin
  • , Joel S. Freundlich
  • , Sean F. Brady

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

167 Scopus citations

Abstract

Here we present a natural product discovery approach, whereby structures are bioinformatically predicted from primary sequence and produced by chemical synthesis (synthetic-bioinformatic natural products, syn-BNPs), circumventing the need for bacterial culture and gene expression. When we applied the approach to nonribosomal peptide synthetase gene clusters from human-associated bacteria, we identified the humimycins. These antibiotics inhibit lipid II flippase and potentiate β-lactam activity against methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus in mice, potentially providing a new treatment regimen.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)1004-1006
Number of pages3
JournalNature Chemical Biology
Volume12
Issue number12
DOIs
StatePublished - Dec 1 2016
Externally publishedYes

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2016 Nature America, Inc., part of Springer Nature.

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