Antimicrobials articles within Nature

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  • News & Views |

    Bacteria that are normally resident in the body have many roles in supporting health. Researchers have now identified a bacterial resident of the nose that produces an antibiotic that is active against a pathogen. See Article p.511

    • Kim Lewis
    •  & Philip Strandwitz

  • News |

    Bacteria from the human body produce an antibiotic that seems to kill resistant bacteria.

    • Anna Nowogrodzki

  • Article |

    The nasal commensal bacterium Staphylococcus lugdunensis produces a novel cyclic peptide antibiotic, lugdunin, that inhibits colonization by S. aureus in animal models and is associated with a significantly reduced S. aureus carriage rate in humans, suggesting that human commensal bacteria could be a valuable resource for the discovery of new antibiotics.

    • Alexander Zipperer
    • , Martin C. Konnerth
    •  & Bernhard Krismer

  • News & Views |

    Interactions in the gut between host cells and bacteria can determine a state of health or disease. A study investigates how antibiotic treatment can affect host cells in a way that drives growth of pathogenic bacteria. See Letter p.697

    • Thibault G. Sana
    •  & Denise M. Monack

  • Article |

    A practical, fully synthetic route to macrolide antibiotics via the convergent assembly of simple chemical building blocks is described; more than 300 new macrolide antibiotic candidates have been synthesized using this approach, a number of which are active against bacterial strains that are resistant to currently used antibiotics.

    • Ian B. Seiple
    • , Ziyang Zhang
    •  & Andrew G. Myers

  • Article |

    An analysis of bacterial community structure and antibiotic resistance gene content of interconnected human faecal and environmental samples from two low-income communities in Latin America was carried out using a combination of functional metagenomics, 16S sequencing and shotgun sequencing; resistomes across habitats are generally structured along ecological gradients, but key resistance genes can cross these boundaries, and the authors assessed the usefulness of excreta management protocols in the prevention of resistance gene dissemination.

    • Erica C. Pehrsson
    • , Pablo Tsukayama
    •  & Gautam Dantas

  • Letter |

    The crystal structure of the MraY enzyme from Aquifex aeolicus in complex with the naturally occurring nucleoside inhibitor muraymycin D2 (MD2) reveals that MraY undergoes a large conformational rearrangement near the active site after the binding of MD2, leading to the generation of a nucleoside-binding pocket and a peptide-binding site.

    • Ben C. Chung
    • , Ellene H. Mashalidis
    •  & Seok-Yong Lee

  • News & Views |

    Some Staphylococcus aureus bacteria are thought to survive standard antibiotic treatment by 'hiding' in host cells. But an antibody–antibiotic conjugate has been developed that targets these bacteria in mouse models. See Article p.323

    • Wolf-Dietrich Hardt

  • Article |

    Antibiotic-resistant strains of Staphylococcus aureus, such as MRSA, are proving increasingly difficult to treat; here, one reason for this is confirmed to be the fact that S. aureus bacteria can reside in intracellular reservoirs where they are protected from antibiotics, but a new strategy—based on an antibody–antibiotic conjugate—can specifically target these reservoirs.

    • Sophie M. Lehar
    • , Thomas Pillow
    •  & Sanjeev Mariathasan

  • Letter |

    The authors develop a mouse model of Enterococcus faecalis colonization to show that enterococci harbouring the bacteriocin-expressing plasmid pPD1 replace indigenous enterococci and have the ability to transfer the plasmid to other enterococci, which enhances the stability of the bacteriocin-expressing bacteria in the gut; this result suggests a therapeutic approach that leverages niche-specificity to eliminate antibiotic-resistant bacteria from infected individuals.

    • Sushma Kommineni
    • , Daniel J. Bretl
    •  & Nita H. Salzman

  • News & Views |

    A screen for compounds that block a bacterial biosynthetic pathway has uncovered an antibiotic lead that shuts off pathogen growth by targeting a molecular switch in a regulatory RNA structure. See Article p.672

    • Thomas Hermann

  • News & Views |

    Modelling of the interactions between antibiotic production and antibiotic degradation reveals that these opposing activities are key to maintaining diversity in microbial communities. See Letter p.516

    • Carl T. Bergstrom
    •  & Benjamin Kerr

  • Article |

    From a new species of β-proteobacteria, an antibiotic called teixobactin that does not generate resistance has been characterized; the antibiotic has two different lipid targets in different bacterial cell wall synthesis components, which may explain why resistance was not observed.

    • Losee L. Ling
    • , Tanja Schneider
    •  & Kim Lewis

  • Article |

    A new treatment, containing an optimized cocktail of three monoclonal antibodies against Ebola virus, provided full protection and disease reversal in rhesus monkeys when given under conditions in which controls succumbed by day 8; this new therapy may be a good candidate for treating Ebola virus infection in human patients.

    • Xiangguo Qiu
    • , Gary Wong
    •  & Gary P. Kobinger

  • Letter |

    Functional metagenomic selections for resistance to 18 antibiotics in 18 different soils reveal that bacterial community composition is the primary determinant of soil antibiotic resistance gene content.

    • Kevin J. Forsberg
    • , Sanket Patel
    •  & Gautam Dantas

  • Outlook |

    It's time to use viruses that kill bacteria again, say Shigenobu Matsuzaki, Jumpei Uchiyama, Iyo Takemura-Uchiyama and Masanori Daibata.

    • Shigenobu Matsuzaki
    • , Jumpei Uchiyama
    •  & Masanori Daibata

  • Outlook |

    In the face of more drug-resistant bugs and fewer new drugs, partnerships promise a resurgence of antibiotics.

    • Mike May

  • Outlook |

    Science goes back to nature to decipher and disrupt the mechanisms by which germs evade antibiotics.

    • Bill Cannon

  • Outlook |

    New antibiotic treatments could be found by combining novel and existing drugs, in drug-free nanoparticles, or at the bottom of the sea.

    • Katharine Gammon

  • Article |

    Dormant bacterial persister cells evade antibiotic destruction and their survival gives rise to some chronic infections; this study reveals that persister cells can be eradicated with a compound activating the bacterial protease ClpP, providing an effective biofilm treatment in vitro and in mouse chronic infection models.

    • B. P. Conlon
    • , E. S. Nakayasu
    •  & K. Lewis

  • Outlook |

    Combinations of anti-TB drugs are difficult to overcome because they attack Mycobacterium tuberculosis in different ways.

    • Amy Maxmen

  • Outlook |

    Universities should forego profits from tuberculosis, say David G. Russell and Carl F. Nathan.

    • David G. Russell
    •  & Carl F. Nathan

  • News & Views |

    Mice receiving low doses of certain antibiotics gain weight and accumulate fat. This could be because some gut bacteria survive the treatment better than others, shifting digestion towards greater energy provision. See Article p.621

    • Harry J. Flint

  • Article |

    Treatment of young mice with low levels of antibiotics results in increases in adiposity and causes both a change in the composition of the intestinal microbial community and an alteration in the activity of microbial metabolic pathways, leading to increased short-chain fatty acid production.

    • Ilseung Cho
    • , Shingo Yamanishi
    •  & Martin J. Blaser

  • Letter |

    In a porcine cystic fibrosis model, lack of cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR) is shown to result in acidification of airway surface liquid (ASL), and this decrease in pH reduces the ability of ASL to kill bacteria; the findings directly link loss of the CFTR anion channel to impaired defence against bacterial infection.

    • Alejandro A. Pezzulo
    • , Xiao Xiao Tang
    •  & Joseph Zabner

  • Comment |

    Frank Aarestrup explains how he helped Denmark to cut the use of antibiotics in its livestock by 60%, and calls on the rest of the world to follow suit.

    • Frank Aarestrup

  • Comment |

    Bacterial evolution is overwhelming our antibiotic defences, says Kim Lewis. Using modern technology to replicate past success might tip the balance in our favour.

    • Kim Lewis

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