New antibiotic found 'hidden in plain sight'

Scientists from the University of Warwick and Monash University worked together to find the compound

Warwick University scientists are among those to have discovered a powerful new antibiotic with the potential to fight drug-resistant superbugs like MRSA.

Chemists from the university, along with a team from Monash University, Australia, said the compound, called pre-methylenomycin C lactone, was found "hiding in plain sight" as part of the natural process that produces known antibiotic methylenomycin A.

Researchers said it is more than 100 times stronger than its parent compound.

They added it could one day play a key role in tackling infections that currently claim around 1.1 million lives each year.

'Real surprise'

Prof Greg Challis, from the University of Warwick's chemistry department and Melbourne's Monash University's Biomedicine Discovery Institute, said: "Methylenomycin A was originally discovered 50 years ago, but no-one appears to have tested the synthetic intermediates for antimicrobial activity.

"By deleting biosynthetic genes, we discovered two previously unknown intermediates."

Researchers also noted that bacteria did not become resistant to it under conditions where resistance would typically emerge which they called an encouraging sign for future use.

Dr Lona Alkhalaf, assistant professor at Warwick, said the finding was unexpected.

"The bacterium that makes methylenomycin A — Streptomyces coelicolor — is one of the most studied antibiotic-producing species since the 1950s.

"Finding a new antibiotic in such a familiar organism was a real surprise."

"This suggests a new paradigm for antibiotic discovery," Prof Challis said.

He said further testing and research may "find potent new antibiotics with more resilience to resistance".

The next stage will involve pre-clinical testing of the compound.