discovery of penicillin. By 1990, about 80% of drugs were either natural
products or analogs inspired by them.”- “Antibiotics (e.g., penicillin, tetracycline, erythromycin), antiparasitics (e.g.,
avermectin), antimalarials (e.g., quinine, artemisinin), lipid control agents (e.g.,
lovastatin and analogs), immunosuppresants for organ transplants (e.g.,
cyclosporine, rapamycins) and anticancer drugs (e.g., taxol, doxorubicin)
revolutionized medicine.” - “Life expectancy in much of the world lengthened from about 40 years early in
the 20th century to more than 77 years today [2008].” - “Many pharmaceutical firms have eliminated their natural product research in the
past decade...Is the era of discovery of new drugs from natural sources ending?” - “Although the current industry model for drug discovery does not favor natural
products, the resource is so vast as to seem unlimited, and these emerging tools
will provide exhilarating discoveries leading to new medicines.” - HOPE IS TO ADD SKIP’S COMMENT
Li, X. and Nikaido, H. (2009). Efflux-medicated drug resistance in bacteria: An update.
National Institute of Health. 69(12). pg. 1555-1623.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2847397/
SKIP, PLEASE CHECK CITATION CORRECTNESS
- “Drug efflux pumps play a key role in drug resistance and also serve other
functions in bacteria...These pumps are mostly encoded on the chromosome
although they can also be plasmid-encoded...In the past five years, significant
progress has been achieved in further understanding of drug resistance-related
efflux transporters.”
Ling, L., Schneider, T., Peoples, A., et al. (2015). A new antibiotic kills pathogens
without detectable resistance. Nature. 517. Pg. 455-9.
http://www.nature.com/articles/nature14098.epdf?referrer_access_token=7qgWoiQWA
kWIZtd4FOUq09RgN0jAjWel9jnR3ZoTv0PvwA6rMMnycnymQk5ZOpb5ktLjj6cTh7
j_4Otw8h3aTDBBDNFm-oDdcgGAruW1Qh8em_qgL58a0PI3KtqoXynG
- “Uncultured bacteria make up approximately 99% of all species in external
environments, and are an untapped source of new antibiotics.” - “We developed...a new antibiotic that we term teixobactin, discovered in a
screen of uncultured bacteria. Teixobactin inhibits cell wall synthesis by binding
to a highly conserved motif of lipid II (precursor of peptidoglycan) and lipid III
(precursor of cell wall teichoic acid).”