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Antibiotics

Homed to the hideout

Nature volume 527, pages 309–310 (2015)Cite this article

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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

The pathogenic bacterium Staphylococcus aureus causes thousands of deaths each year. Therapy is sometimes unsuccessful, partly because antibiotic-resistance genes are spreading worldwide. However, even strains of S. aureus that lack resistance genes are often difficult to kill with available antibiotics; it has been suggested that the bacteria 'hide' inside host cells. This hypothesis inspired Lehar et al.1 who, on page 323 of this issue, present a construct in which an antibiotic is linked to an antibody that binds to the pathogen's surface. Alone, this 'prodrug' is inactive, but when prodrug-coated bacteria enter host cells, enzymatic activity releases the antibiotic. In mouse models of S. aureus infection, this strategy was strikingly more potent than standard antibiotic treatment.

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Figure 1: Targeted intracellular antibiotic release.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Wolf-Dietrich Hardt is at the Institute of Microbiology, ETH Zürich, 8093 Zürich, Switzerland.,

    Wolf-Dietrich Hardt

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  1. Wolf-Dietrich Hardt
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Correspondence to Wolf-Dietrich Hardt.

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Hardt, WD. Homed to the hideout. Nature 527, 309–310 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature15647

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