Vancomycin

Vancomycin
Jon Thorson at the University of Wisconsin and colleagues have produced 8 variants of Vancomycin, a couple of which may be up to 40 times as effective as the parent compound in fighting serious drug resistant infection. Antibiotic resistance is an increasing problem with resistant strains of Staphylococcus and, even more troubling, resistant strains of Tuberculosis.

Vancomycin was until recently effective against these resistant organisms. The loss of effectiveness of this last ditch antibiotic played out in the recent case of the airline passenger with resistant TB. Resistance plays an increasingly tragic role in hospital infections, pediatric units and in the evacuation chain of hospitals treating our war wounded.

This chemical manipulation of the therapeutically active part of a chemical structure defeats the bacteria’s defense mechanism. It is reassuring to see this research done at the university level. Hopefully it will prove effective in extensively drug resistant tuberculosis, XDRTB.
J.Am.Chem.Soc.10.1021