Sideromycins are a group of

antibiotics An antibiotic is a type of antimicrobial substance active against bacteria. It is the most important type of antibacterial agent for fighting bacterial infections, and antibiotic medications are widely used in the treatment and prevention o ...

linked to

siderophores Siderophores (Greek: "iron carrier") are small, high-affinity iron-chelating compounds that are secreted by microorganisms such as bacteria and fungi. They help the organism accumulate iron. Although a widening range of siderophore functions is no ...

covalent bonds A covalent bond is a chemical bond that involves the sharing of electrons to form electron pairs between atoms. These electron pairs are known as shared pairs or bonding pairs. The stable balance of attractive and repulsive forces between atoms ...

. Examples of naturally occurring sideromycins are

albomycin Albomycins are a group of naturally occurring antibiotics belonging to the class of sideromycins, which are "compounds composed of iron carriers called siderophores linked to antibiotic moieties". They are particularly effective against Gram-neg ...

and salmycin. Sideromycins have some unique merits as antibiotic. They can actively bypass permeability barriers (membranes) to deliver the drug inside the target bacterial cell, irrespective of the size and polarity of the antibiotic moiety contained into it. Most importantly as they are substrates of high affinity

siderophore Siderophores (Greek: "iron carrier") are small, high-affinity iron- chelating compounds that are secreted by microorganisms such as bacteria and fungi. They help the organism accumulate iron. Although a widening range of siderophore functions is n ...

transport systems they can be effective to kill bacteria at very low concentration. Also the delivery of the antibiotic will be highly target specific, so wouldn't affect the host system. Sideromycins is being considered as a new microbe-selective antibacterial agent, which can limit the emergence of resistance.

References

Antibiotics Siderophores {{Microbiology-stub