Teixobactin

Next, a new class of natural antimicrobial agent, teixobactin is recently found as a strong bactericidal agent which is active against MRSA treatment. Teixobactin is produced by Eleftheria terrae, a new species of β-proteobacteria which belongs to a new a new genus related to Aquabacteria. Teixobactin is a depsipeptide which contains compounds such as enduracidin, methylphenylalanine and four D-amino acids that involves in inhibiting the synthesis of peptidoglycan. According to Ling et al’s paper, teixobactin has a unique mode of mechanism from the existing antibiotics where it targets multiple target sides which are lipid molecules on peptidoglycan and also teichoic acids that used by bacteria in cell wall synthesis. Teixobactin will form a stoichiometric complex by binding to a highly conserved motif of …show more content…
The bacteria cell will eventually die from autolysis due to the osmotic pressure as there is no cell wall to protect the bacteria cell and withstand the high osmotic pressure. Teixobactin resistance is unlikely to occur in any therapeutic treatment due to the multiple targeting site of teixobactin which made the bacteria hard to alter the molecules and develop resistance against it. According to Piddock L.V., teixobactin is able to reduce the bacterial load effectively in the experimental infections of MRSA and also Streptococcus pneumoniae in mice. Although teixobactin is found to be effective against MRSA and other infections that caused by Gram positive bacteria, however, teixobactin does have its limitation. Primarily, the antibiotic only being tested on mice. This is due to the toxicity of the drug where it might kill mammalian cells at the same time while it is killing bacteria. Besides, there is another issue where teixobactin only effects gram positive bacteria but not gram negative