Oxadiazoles: New Class Of Antibiotics Discovered [View all]

[SidDithers]

http://www.science20.com/news_articles/oxadiazoles_new_class_antibiotics_discovered-131265

A team of researchers led by Mayland Chang and Shahriar Mobashery have discovered a new class of antibiotics to fight bacteria such as methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and other drug-resistant bacteria that threaten public health.

The new class of antibiotics, called oxadiazoles, was discovered in silico and has shown promise in the treatment of MRSA in mouse models of infection. The researchers who screened 1.2 million compounds found that the oxadiazole inhibits a penicillin-binding protein, PBP2a, and the biosynthesis of the cell wall that enables MRSA to resist other drugs

The oxadiazoles are also effective when taken orally. This is an important feature as there is only one marketed antibiotic for MRSA that can be taken orally.

MRSA has become a global public-health problem since the 1960s because of its resistance to antibiotics. In the United States alone, 278,000 people are hospitalized and 19,000 die each year from infections caused by MRSA. Only three drugs currently are effective treatments, and resistance to each of those drugs already exists.

Article: "Discovery of a New Class of Non-beta-lactam Inhibitors of Penicillin-Binding Proteins with Gram-Positive Antibacterial Activity" is
published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24517363

Sid