Newest perspectives of glycopeptide antibiotics: biosynthetic cascades, novel derivatives, and new appealing antimicrobial applications.

Journal: World journal of microbiology & biotechnology
Published Date:

Abstract

Glycopeptide antibiotics (GPAs) are a family of non-ribosomal peptide natural products with polypeptide skeleton characteristics, which are considered the last resort for treating severe infections caused by multidrug-resistant Gram-positive pathogens. Over the past few years, an increasing prevalence of Gram-positive resistant strain "superbugs" has emerged. Therefore, more efforts are needed to study and modify the GPAs to overcome the challenge of superbugs. In this mini-review, we provide an overview of the complex biosynthetic gene clusters (BGCs), the ingenious crosslinking and tailoring modifications, the new GPA derivatives, the discoveries of new natural GPAs, and the new applications of GPAs in antivirus and anti-Gram-negative bacteria. With the development and interdisciplinary integration of synthetic biology, next-generation sequencing (NGS), and artificial intelligence (AI), more GPAs with new chemical structures and action mechanisms will constantly be emerging.

Authors

  • Li Tian
    Department of Gastroenterology, Third Xiangya Hospital, Central South University, Changsha 410013, China. tianlixy3@csu.edu.cn.
  • Shi Shi
    School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Liaocheng University, 252000, Liaocheng, China.
  • Xiangmei Zhang
    School of Computer Science, Sichuan University, Chengdu, China.
  • Fubo Han
    School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Liaocheng University, 252000, Liaocheng, China.
  • Huijun Dong
    School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Liaocheng University, 252000, Liaocheng, China. donghuijun_747@163.com.