Purdue University researchers maintain a newly identified compound has proven to be as potent as FDA approved infection-fighting drugs and is less susceptible to bacterial resistance.
Investigators said preliminary testing, outlined via the European Journal of Medicinal Chemistry, determined F6 has been potent against antibiotic-resistant pathogens such as methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and vancomycin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (VRSA).
Authors said the work involved screening a chemical library for compounds with antibacterial activity while forcing bacteria resistance on F6 and performing experiments to evaluate the ability of MRSA USA400 to develop resistance to F6 in vitro.
The minimal inhibitory concentration, or MIC, remained unchanged for F6 over nine passages and doubled on the 10th passage, researchers noted. It remained unchanged up to the 14th passage during a two-week period.
“This is very exciting,” said Herman Sintim, drug discovery professor in Purdue’s Department of Chemistry. “We are not the first to report of a new molecular entity that killed these drug-resistant pathogens. But what is unique about the compound that we found is that when we tried to generate resistance in the lab, we couldn’t.”
Testing on mice also indicated F6 was as effective as fusidic acid in treating a wound infected with MRSA, investigators said, confirming its potent antibacterial effect.
Purdue researchers said they would now begin to make derivatives of F6 to see if they might be even more effective.