New approach may give new life to old antibiotic

Considering the normal timeline of natural product chemistry, this was quick,” says Itoh.The student, Yuri Takada, lead author of the research paper, has gone on to complete her doctoral studies and is currently a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom.Next, the scientists began testing their new variations of gramicidin A for activity against strains of Streptococcus bacteria that are responsible for many bacterial infections. While these versions were less harmful to mammalian cells, their ion channel-forming ability remained strong.“It has long been believed to be very difficult to realize species-selective ion channel-forming activity, but our study showed gramicidin A can have very bacteria-selective activity,” says Itoh.The foundational structure-function evidence that the team demonstrated is crucial for understanding why and how pharmaceuticals work.The authors conclude in their paper that the approach that they developed for this study “will be widely applicable as a promising strategy for identifying key structural features and optimizing the pharmacologically favorable activity of natural products.”Policymakers have warned that we face an antibiotic resistance crisis.