A redesigned vancomycin engineered for dual D-Ala-D-ala And D-Ala-D-Lac binding exhibits potent antimicrobial activity against vancomycin-resistant bacteria.
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ABSTRACT: The emergence of bacteria resistant to vancomycin, often the antibiotic of last resort, poses a major health problem. Vancomycin-resistant bacteria sense a glycopeptide antibiotic challenge and remodel their cell wall precursor peptidoglycan terminus from d-Ala-d-Ala to d-Ala-d-Lac, reducing the binding of vancomycin to its target 1000-fold and accounting for the loss in antimicrobial activity. Here, we report [?[C(?NH)NH]Tpg(4)]vancomycin aglycon designed to exhibit the dual binding to d-Ala-d-Ala and d-Ala-d-Lac needed to reinstate activity against vancomycin-resistant bacteria. Its binding to a model d-Ala-d-Ala ligand was found to be only 2-fold less than vancomycin aglycon and this affinity was maintained with a model d-Ala-d-Lac ligand, representing a 600-fold increase relative to vancomycin aglycon. Accurately reflecting these binding characteristics, it exhibits potent antimicrobial activity against vancomycin-resistant bacteria (MIC = 0.31 ?g/mL, VanA VRE). Thus, a complementary single atom exchange in the vancomycin core structure (O ? NH) to counter the single atom exchange in the cell wall precursors of resistant bacteria (NH ? O) reinstates potent antimicrobial activity and charts a rational path forward for the development of antibiotics for the treatment of vancomycin-resistant bacterial infections.
SUBMITTER: Xie J
PROVIDER: S-EPMC3164945 | biostudies-literature | 2011 Sep
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
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