Discovery of a family of menaquinone-targeting cyclic lipodepsipeptides for multidrug-resistant Gram-positive pathogens

Abstract Menaquinone (MK) in bacterial membrane is an attractive target for the development of novel therapeutic agents. Mining the untapped chemical diversity encoded by Gram-negative bacteria presents an opportunity to identify additional MK-binding antibiotics (MBAs). By MK-binding motif searchin...

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Main Authors: Runze Sun, Di Zhao, Xuchang Yu, Fei Zhang, Ruixiang You, Xiaoxia Luo, Lei Li
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Nature Portfolio 2024-11-01
Series:Communications Biology
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1038/s42003-024-07159-5
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author Runze Sun
Di Zhao
Xuchang Yu
Fei Zhang
Ruixiang You
Xiaoxia Luo
Lei Li
author_facet Runze Sun
Di Zhao
Xuchang Yu
Fei Zhang
Ruixiang You
Xiaoxia Luo
Lei Li
author_sort Runze Sun
collection DOAJ
description Abstract Menaquinone (MK) in bacterial membrane is an attractive target for the development of novel therapeutic agents. Mining the untapped chemical diversity encoded by Gram-negative bacteria presents an opportunity to identify additional MK-binding antibiotics (MBAs). By MK-binding motif searching of bioinformatically predicted linear non-ribosomal peptides from 14,298 sequenced genomes of 45 underexplored Gram-negative bacterial genera, here we identify a novel MBA structural family, including silvmeb and pseudomeb, using structure prediction-guided chemical synthesis. Both MBAs show rapid bacteriolysis by MK-dependent membrane depolarization to achieve their potent activities against a panel of Gram-positive pathogens. Furthermore, both MBAs are proven to be effective against methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus in a murine peritonitis-sepsis model. Our findings suggest that MBAs are a kind of structurally diverse and still underexplored antibacterial lipodepsipeptide class. The interrogation of underexplored bacterial taxa using synthetic bioinformatic natural product methods is an appealing strategy for discovering novel biomedically relevant agents to confront the crisis of antimicrobial resistance.
format Article
id doaj-art-3416cd9444ec4cebba444218fedc2316
institution DOAJ
issn 2399-3642
language English
publishDate 2024-11-01
publisher Nature Portfolio
record_format Article
series Communications Biology
spelling doaj-art-3416cd9444ec4cebba444218fedc23162025-08-20T02:50:08ZengNature PortfolioCommunications Biology2399-36422024-11-01711910.1038/s42003-024-07159-5Discovery of a family of menaquinone-targeting cyclic lipodepsipeptides for multidrug-resistant Gram-positive pathogensRunze Sun0Di Zhao1Xuchang Yu2Fei Zhang3Ruixiang You4Xiaoxia Luo5Lei Li6State Key Laboratory of Microbial Metabolism and School of Life Sciences and Biotechnology, Shanghai Jiao Tong UniversityState Key Laboratory of Microbial Metabolism and School of Life Sciences and Biotechnology, Shanghai Jiao Tong UniversityState Key Laboratory of Microbial Metabolism and School of Life Sciences and Biotechnology, Shanghai Jiao Tong UniversityState Key Laboratory of Microbial Metabolism and School of Life Sciences and Biotechnology, Shanghai Jiao Tong UniversityState Key Laboratory of Microbial Metabolism and School of Life Sciences and Biotechnology, Shanghai Jiao Tong UniversityCollege of Life Science, Tarim UniversityState Key Laboratory of Microbial Metabolism and School of Life Sciences and Biotechnology, Shanghai Jiao Tong UniversityAbstract Menaquinone (MK) in bacterial membrane is an attractive target for the development of novel therapeutic agents. Mining the untapped chemical diversity encoded by Gram-negative bacteria presents an opportunity to identify additional MK-binding antibiotics (MBAs). By MK-binding motif searching of bioinformatically predicted linear non-ribosomal peptides from 14,298 sequenced genomes of 45 underexplored Gram-negative bacterial genera, here we identify a novel MBA structural family, including silvmeb and pseudomeb, using structure prediction-guided chemical synthesis. Both MBAs show rapid bacteriolysis by MK-dependent membrane depolarization to achieve their potent activities against a panel of Gram-positive pathogens. Furthermore, both MBAs are proven to be effective against methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus in a murine peritonitis-sepsis model. Our findings suggest that MBAs are a kind of structurally diverse and still underexplored antibacterial lipodepsipeptide class. The interrogation of underexplored bacterial taxa using synthetic bioinformatic natural product methods is an appealing strategy for discovering novel biomedically relevant agents to confront the crisis of antimicrobial resistance.https://doi.org/10.1038/s42003-024-07159-5
spellingShingle Runze Sun
Di Zhao
Xuchang Yu
Fei Zhang
Ruixiang You
Xiaoxia Luo
Lei Li
Discovery of a family of menaquinone-targeting cyclic lipodepsipeptides for multidrug-resistant Gram-positive pathogens
Communications Biology
title Discovery of a family of menaquinone-targeting cyclic lipodepsipeptides for multidrug-resistant Gram-positive pathogens
title_full Discovery of a family of menaquinone-targeting cyclic lipodepsipeptides for multidrug-resistant Gram-positive pathogens
title_fullStr Discovery of a family of menaquinone-targeting cyclic lipodepsipeptides for multidrug-resistant Gram-positive pathogens
title_full_unstemmed Discovery of a family of menaquinone-targeting cyclic lipodepsipeptides for multidrug-resistant Gram-positive pathogens
title_short Discovery of a family of menaquinone-targeting cyclic lipodepsipeptides for multidrug-resistant Gram-positive pathogens
title_sort discovery of a family of menaquinone targeting cyclic lipodepsipeptides for multidrug resistant gram positive pathogens
url https://doi.org/10.1038/s42003-024-07159-5
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