Tigecycline: a novel glycylcycline antibiotic

Tigecycline, the first-in-class glycylcycline, was developed to recapture the broad spectrum of activity of the tetracycline class and to treat patients with difficult-to-treat bacterial infections. Tigecycline's in vitro spectrum of activity encompasses aerobic, facultative and anaerobic Gram-positive and -negative bacteria, including antimicrobial-resistant bacteria such as methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus faecalis and Enterococcus faecium, and extended-spectrum beta-lactamase-producing Enterobacteriaceae. Clinical trials involving patients with complicated skin and skin-structure infections and complicated intra-abdominal infections, including patients infected with methicillin-resistant S. aureus, demonstrated that tigecycline was bacteriologically and clinically effective with mild-to-moderate gastrointestinal adverse events (i.e., nausea, vomiting and diarrhea) the most commonly reported. Tigecycline is a promising new broad-spectrum parenteral monotherapy for the treatment of patients with Gram-positive and -negative bacterial infections.