Peptide power

Abstract

Despite the current industry stagnation in antibiotic R&D, recent research by two industry–academic collaborative groups has resulted in the discovery of two new classes of antimicrobial peptides for treating Gram-positive bacterial infections.Ten years after the discovery of a complex of eight closely related acyldepsipeptides (ADEPs) with in vitro activity against staphylococci and streptococci, Harald Labischinski and colleagues reveal in Nature Medicine the structure of the main peptide component of the complex, ADEP1, and report the de novo synthesis of optimized variants of the peptide with improved antibiotic properties.