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This content will become publicly available on February 16, 2025

Title: An antibiotic preorganized for ribosomal binding overcomes antimicrobial resistance

We report the design conception, chemical synthesis, and microbiological evaluation of the bridged macrobicyclic antibiotic cresomycin (CRM), which overcomes evolutionarily diverse forms of antimicrobial resistance that render modern antibiotics ineffective. CRM exhibits in vitro and in vivo efficacy against both Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria, including multidrug-resistant strains ofStaphylococcus aureus,Escherichia coli, andPseudomonas aeruginosa. We show that CRM is highly preorganized for ribosomal binding by determining its density functional theory–calculated, solution-state, solid-state, and (wild-type) ribosome-bound structures, which all align identically within the macrobicyclic subunits. Lastly, we report two additional x-ray crystal structures of CRM in complex with bacterial ribosomes separately modified by the ribosomal RNA methylases, chloramphenicol-florfenicol resistance (Cfr) and erythromycin-resistance ribosomal RNA methylase (Erm), revealing concessive adjustments by the target and antibiotic that permit CRM to maintain binding where other antibiotics fail.

 
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Award ID(s):
2216066
NSF-PAR ID:
10528708
Author(s) / Creator(s):
; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ;
Publisher / Repository:
Science
Date Published:
Journal Name:
Science
Volume:
383
Issue:
6684
ISSN:
0036-8075
Page Range / eLocation ID:
721 to 726
Format(s):
Medium: X
Sponsoring Org:
National Science Foundation
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