Synthesis and Characterization of a New Antibiotic

Researchers at Stanford and their colleagues have developed new antibiotic compounds that could be used to treat staph infection (caused by Staphylococcus aureus) and TB infection (caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis). Antibiotic resistance is increasing and has become a global health threat. Thus, there is a great need for new antibiotics.

To help meet this need the inventors have identified two 1,4- benzoquinone derivatives that could serve as new antibiotics. They have isolated the compounds, one red and the other blue, from the venom of the scorpion Diplocentrus melici. Further, they have developed methods to synthesize these compounds from commercially available reagents and have characterized the biological activity of the compounds. The red compound is very effective at killing S. aureus (the cause of staph infections, including MRSA), while the blue compound is very effective against M. tuberculosis (the cause of TB infections and multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB)). This technology provides much needed new antibiotic compounds that can be used to treat staph and TB infections.

Stage of Research
Using mouse models of MDR-TB infection, the inventors have shown that the blue compound dramatically decreases the bacterial load and amount of tissue damage. Additional validation studies are ongoing.