A new antibiotic kills pathogens without detectable resistance.

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. Synthetic approaches to produce antibiotics have been unable to replace this platform.

Isofuranonaphthoquinone produced by an Actinoplanes isolate.

A new isofuranonaphthoquinone, 7,8-dihydroxy-1-methylnaphtho[2,3-c]furan-4,9-dione, was isolated from cultures of an Actinoplanes isolate obtained using an in situ diffusion technology that facilitates the isolation of soil microorganisms. This compound was demonstrated to have the ability to complex Fe(III). The structure was determined on the basis of spectroscopic data.

Neocitreamicins I and II, novel antibiotics with activity against methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus and vancomycin-resistant Enterococci.

Two novel antibiotics, neocitreamicins I and II, were isolated from a fermentation broth of a Nocardia strain. This producing strain was obtained using an in situ diffusion chamber that facilitates the cultivation of soil microorganisms. The structures of neocitreamicins I and II were elucidated using UV, MS, and NMR data, and found to be related to the polycyclic xanthone antibiotics of the citreamicin class.

A phthalide with in vitro growth inhibitory activity from an oidiodendron strain.

A screening campaign was implemented utilizing capillary electrophoresis as a primary assay to discover binders to the cancer target Akt1 from a crude natural extract library. Fungal extracts with binding activities were characterized for biochemical inhibition of Akt1 to phosphorylate the downstream substrate protein Bad. One of the crude extracts with bioactivity selected for isolation and structure elucidation from fermentation of the fungal culture Oidiodendron sp.