Odilorhabdins are a class of natural antibacterial agents produced by the bacterium ''

Xenorhabdus nematophila ''Xenorhabdus'' is a genus of motile, gram-negative bacteria from the family of the Morganellaceae. All the species of the genus are only known to live in symbiosis with soil entomopathogenic nematodes from the genus ''Steinernema''. Although no ...

''. Odilorhabdins act against both Gram-positive and Gram-negative pathogens, and were shown to eliminate infections in mouse models.

Mechanism of action

Odilorhabdins interfere with the pathogen's

protein synthesis Protein biosynthesis (or protein synthesis) is a core biological process, occurring inside Cell (biology), cells, homeostasis, balancing the loss of cellular proteins (via Proteolysis, degradation or Protein targeting, export) through the product ...

and are

ribosome Ribosomes ( ) are macromolecular machines, found within all cells, that perform biological protein synthesis (mRNA translation). Ribosomes link amino acids together in the order specified by the codons of messenger RNA (mRNA) molecules to ...

-targeting. They bind to the small ribosomal subunit at a site not exploited by previous antibiotics and induce miscoding and premature stop codon bypass. Odilorhabdins were shown to act particularly against carbapenem-resistant members of bacteria family

Enterobacteriaceae Enterobacteriaceae is a large family (biology), family of Gram-negative bacteria. It was first proposed by Rahn in 1936, and now includes over 30 genera and more than 100 species. Its classification above the level of family is still a subject ...

, having potential to kill pathogens with antimicrobial resistance.

Discovery

The discovery of odilorhabdins was announced in 2013 and formally described in 2018 by the researchers of the University of Illinois at Chicago and Nosopharm. To identify the antibiotic, the Nosopharm researchers tested 80

cultured Culture () is an umbrella term which encompasses the social behavior, institutions, and norms found in human societies, as well as the knowledge, beliefs, arts, laws, customs, capabilities, and habits of the individuals in these groups.Tylor ...

bacterial strains for antimicrobial properties and then isolated the active compounds.

References

Protein synthesis inhibitor antibiotics Antimicrobial peptides {{pharma-stub