Natural products that target the cell envelope.
Julia E Page1, Suzanne Walker1
1Department of Microbiology, Harvard Medical School, HIM1013, 4 Blackfan Circle, Boston, MA, 02115, United States.
Current Opinion in Microbiology
|March 4, 2021
Summary
The urgent need for new antibiotics drives research into natural products targeting bacterial cell envelopes. Nature offers diverse compounds, including substrate-binding agents, lysins, and outer membrane protein-targeting molecules, for clinical development.
Area of Science:
- Microbiology
- Drug Discovery
- Natural Products Chemistry
Background:
- Antibiotic resistance necessitates a continuous pipeline of novel therapeutic agents.
- Microbial natural products represent a rich source of compounds with antibacterial properties, particularly those targeting the bacterial cell envelope.
- Many natural products with potential antibacterial activity remain underexplored.
Purpose of the Study:
- To highlight the potential of natural products as a source for new antibiotic development.
- To identify promising classes of natural products and strategies for targeting bacterial pathogens.
- To emphasize the need for continued investigation into nature's chemical diversity for antimicrobial solutions.
Main Methods:
- Review of existing literature on natural products with antibacterial activity.
- Analysis of evolutionary strategies employed by organisms to produce cell envelope-targeting compounds.
- Identification of key molecular targets and mechanisms of action for promising natural product classes.
Main Results:
- Natural products offer a diverse range of structures and mechanisms to combat bacterial infections.
- Specific promising avenues include substrate-binding antibiotics for Gram-positive bacteria, phage-derived lysins, and agents targeting outer membrane proteins in Gram-negative bacteria.
- A vast number of natural products with potential clinical applications are yet to be discovered and developed.
Conclusions:
- Nature provides a vast and largely untapped reservoir of potential antibiotic candidates.
- Targeting the bacterial cell envelope with repurposed natural products is a viable strategy to address antibiotic resistance.
- Further research and development are crucial to translate these natural gifts into effective clinical treatments.
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