Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • NEWS AND VIEWS

New antibiotics target the outer membrane of bacteria

A double membrane protects certain bacteria from antibiotics, but compounds have now been generated that can overcome this obstacle, seemingly by targeting a crucial protein in the outer membrane.
  1. Marcelo C. Sousa

    1. Marcelo C. Sousa is in the Department of Biochemistry, University of Colorado, Boulder, Boulder, Colorado 80301, USA.

    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed  Google Scholar

Antibiotic resistance is a growing global public-health problem1. One group of bacteria, called Gram-negative bacteria, is particularly difficult to treat, because the cells are shielded by a double-membrane envelope, which constitutes a formidable barrier to antibiotics2. When antibiotics do breach the membranes, these bacteria often use efflux pumps to remove the drugs3,4. Three papers (two in Nature5,6 and one in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences7) now describe antibiotics that overcome these obstacles by targeting, directly or indirectly, a protein integral to the outer membrane.

Access options

Rent or buy this article

Prices vary by article type

from$1.95

to$39.95

Learn more

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Nature 576, 389-390 (2019)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-019-03730-x

References

  1. World Health Organization. Global Priority List of Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria to Guide Research, Discovery, and Development of New Antibiotics (WHO, 2017).

    Google Scholar 

  2. Nikaido, H. Microbiol. Mol. Biol. Rev. 67, 593–656 (2003).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  3. Li, X.-Z. & Nikaido, H. Drugs 64, 159–204 (2004).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  4. Munita, J. M. & Arias, C. A. Microbiol. Spectr. 4, VMBF-0016-2015 (2016).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Imai, Y. et al. Nature 576, 459–464 (2019).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. Luther, A. et al. Nature 576, 452–458 (2019).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. Hart, E. M. et al. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 116, 21748–21757 (2019).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  8. Konovalova, A., Kahne, D. E. & Silhavy, T. J. Annu. Rev. Microbiol. 71, 539–556 (2017).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  9. Storek, K. M. et al. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 115, 3692–3697 (2018).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  10. Srinivas, N. et al. Science 327, 1010–1013 (2010).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  11. Mares, J., Kumaran, S., Gobbo, M. & Zerbe, O. J. Biol. Chem. 284, 11498–11506 (2009).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  12. Li, J. et al. Lancet Infect. Dis. 6, 589–601 (2006).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

Download references

Subjects

Latest on:

Nature Careers

Jobs

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing

Search

Advanced search

Quick links