Chemical synthesis could produce more potent antibiotics
Using a novel type of chemical reaction, MIT researchers have shown that they can modify antibiotics in a way that could potentially make them more effective against drug-resistant infections. By chemically linking the antibiotic vancomycin to an antimicrobial peptide, the researchers were able to dramatically enhance the drug’s effectiveness against two strains of drug-resistant bacteria. This kind of modification is simple to perform and could be used to create additional combinations of antibiotics and peptides, the researchers say. “Typically, a lot of steps would be needed to get vancomycin in a form that would allow you to attach it to something else, but we don’t have to do anything to the drug,” says Brad Pentelute, an MIT associate professor of chemistry and the study’s senior author. “We just mix them together and we get a conjugation reaction.” This strategy could also be used to modify other types of drugs, including cancer drugs, Pentelute...