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Antibiotics the easy way

Nature Synthesis volume 1, pages 504–505 (2022)Cite this article

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Aminoglycosides are an important class of potent antibiotics; however traditional synthetic approaches are lengthy and often rely on enzyme-based routes. Now, a formal enantioselective copper-catalysed hydroamination of benzene enables the total synthesis of the antibiotic (+)-ribostamycin in ten linear steps.

Aminoglycosides are an important class of antibiotics that have saved millions of lives. The first in its class, streptomycin, was the leading antibiotic for the treatment of tuberculosis, a major feat for humanity in the 1940s2. Despite their ototoxicity and nephrotoxicity, aminoglycosides continue to be prescribed and are generally reserved for aggressive infections caused by antibiotic-resistant bacteria3. New methods to synthesize the core structures of aminoglycosides and their analogues are vital to find aminoglycosides with less toxicity, and to add to the range of therapeutic tools against growing antibiotic resistance4.

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Fig. 1: Copper-catalysed enantioselective hydroamination of benzene for the synthesis of the antibiotic (+)-ribostamycin.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Chemistry, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, USA

    Danniel K. Arriaga & Andy A. Thomas

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  1. Danniel K. Arriaga
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  2. Andy A. Thomas
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Correspondence to Andy A. Thomas.

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The authors declare no competing interests.

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Arriaga, D.K., Thomas, A.A. Antibiotics the easy way. Nat. Synth 1, 504–505 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s44160-022-00093-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s44160-022-00093-6

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