Renaissance in antibacterial discovery from actinomycetes.
The soil actinomycetes have been important sources of antibiotics, but were nearly abandoned in recent years in favor of high-throughput target-based screening of chemical libraries. The latter approach has not been productive, so it is time to reinvigorate the discovery of new antibiotics from a proven source. Recent progress has been made on antibiotic discovery from actinomycetes by using high-throughput fermentation, isolation of marine actinomycetes, mining genomes for cryptic pathways, and combinatorial biosynthesis to generate new secondary metabolites related to existing pharmacophores.
Baltz
Richard H
RH
Drug Discovery and Evaluation, Cubist Pharmaceuticals, Inc., 65 Hayden Avenue, Lexington, MA 02421, USA. rbaltz@cubist.com
D039903:Actinobacteria / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000235:genetics; D000818:Animals; D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents / Q000096:biosynthesis* / Q000302:isolation & purification / Q000494:pharmacology; D004353:Drug Evaluation, Preclinical; D005285:Fermentation; D023281:Genomics; D006801:Humans; D005810:Multigene Family
D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents