Total Synthesis and Structure-Activity Relationships Study of Odilorhabdins, a New Class of Peptides Showing Potent Antibacterial Activity.

The spread of antibiotic-resistant pathogens is a growing concern, and new families of antibacterials are desperately needed. Odilorhabdins are a new class of antibacterial compounds that bind to the bacterial ribosome and kill bacteria through inhibition of the translation. NOSO-95C, one of the first member of this family, was synthesized for the first time, and then a structure-activity relationships study was performed to understand which groups are important for antibacterial activity and for inhibition of the bacterial translation.

and Characterization of NOSO-502, a Novel Inhibitor of Bacterial Translation.

Antibacterial activity screening of a collection of strains led to the discovery of the odilorhabdins, a new antibiotic class with broad-spectrum activity against Gram-positive and Gram-negative pathogens. Odilorhabdins inhibit bacterial translation by a new mechanism of action on ribosomes. A lead optimization program identified NOSO-502 as a promising candidate.

Odilorhabdins, Antibacterial Agents that Cause Miscoding by Binding at a New Ribosomal Site.

Growing resistance of pathogenic bacteria and shortage of antibiotic discovery platforms challenge the use of antibiotics in the clinic. This threat calls for exploration of unconventional sources of antibiotics and identification of inhibitors able to eradicate resistant bacteria. Here we describe a different class of antibiotics, odilorhabdins (ODLs), produced by the enzymes of the non-ribosomal peptide synthetase gene cluster of the nematode-symbiotic bacterium Xenorhabdus nematophila.

Cabanillasin, a new antifungal metabolite, produced by entomopathogenic Xenorhabdus cabanillasii JM26.

Since the early 1980s, fungi have emerged as a major cause of human disease. Fungal infections are associated with high levels of morbidity and mortality, and are now recognized as an important public health problem. Gram-negative bacterial strains of genus Xenorhabdus are known to form symbiotic associations with soil-dwelling nematodes of the Steinernematidae family.

Use of a surface plasmon resonance method to investigate antibiotic and plasma protein interactions.

The pharmacologic effect of an antibiotic is directly related to its unbound concentration at the site of infection. Most commercial antibiotics have been selected in part for their low propensity to interact with serum proteins. These nonspecific interactions are classically evaluated by measuring the MIC in the presence of serum.

The antibiotics in the chemical space.

Ensuring the availability of new antibiotics to eradicate resistant pathogens is a critical issue, but very few new antibacterials have been recently commercialized. In an effort to rationalize their discovery process, the industry has utilized chemical library and high-throughput approaches already applied in other therapeutical areas to generate new antibiotics. This strategy has turned out to be poorly adapted to the reality of antibacterial discovery.

Structure-activity relationships of phenyl-furanyl-rhodanines as inhibitors of RNA polymerase with antibacterial activity on biofilms.

The dramatic rise of antibiotic-resistant bacteria over the past two decades has stressed the need for completely novel classes of antibacterial agents. Accordingly, recent advances in the study of prokaryotic transcription open new opportunities for such molecules. This paper reports the structure-activity relationships of a series of phenyl-furanyl-rhodanines (PFRs) as antibacterial inhibitors of RNA polymerase (RNAP).

In vitro activities of different inhibitors of bacterial transcription against Staphylococcus epidermidis biofilm.

Staphylococcus epidermidis is a major cause of nosocomial infections because of its ability to form biofilms on the surface of medical devices. Only a few antibacterial agents are relatively active against biofilms, and rifampin, a transcription inhibitor, ranks among the most effective molecules against biofilm-related infections. Whether this efficacy is due to advantageous structural properties of rifampin or to the fact that the RNA polymerase is a favorable target remains unclear.

Progress in targeting bacterial transcription.

The bacterial RNA polymerase (RNAP) is an essential enzyme that is responsible for making RNA from a DNA template and is targeted by several antibiotics. Rifampicin was the first of such antibiotics to be described and is one of the most efficient anti-tuberculosis drugs in use. In the past five years, structural studies of bacterial RNAP and the resolution of several complexes of drugs bound to RNAP subunits have revealed molecular details of the drug-binding sites and the mechanism of drug action.

In vitro activity of a new antibacterial rhodanine derivative against Staphylococcus epidermidis biofilms.

Objectives: Staphylococcus epidermidis biofilms form at the surface of implants and prostheses and are responsible for the failure of many antibiotic therapies. Only a few antibiotics are relatively active against biofilms, and rifampicin, a transcription inhibitor, is among the most effective molecules for treating biofilm-related infections. Having recently selected a new potential transcription inhibitor, we attempted to evaluate its efficacy against S.

Novel synthetic molecules targeting the bacterial RNA polymerase assembly.

Objectives: Despite extensive functional screening of the bacterial RNA polymerase (RNAP) over the past years, very few novel inhibitors have been reported. We have, therefore, decided to screen with a radically different, non-enzymic, protein-protein interaction assay. Our target is the highly conserved RNAP-sigma interaction that is essential for transcription.

A multiwell assay to isolate compounds inhibiting the assembly of the prokaryotic RNA polymerase.

We have developed a multiwell assay for the detection of modulators of prokaryotic transcription based on the quantification of protein-protein interaction. This assay consists of three steps: (a) the immobilization of the Escherichia coli protein sigma70 in the well, (b) the incubation of the immobilized protein with core RNA polymerase and a potential inhibitor, and (c) washing and quantification of the binding of core to sigma70 with a monoclonal antibody conjugated to horseradish peroxidase. We show that this assay is sensitive, reproducible, and robust, and is able to discriminate between control competitors with different affinities.