Many recent human activities have strongly influenced our global environment, often in ways we have not been able to predict. An example is our use of antibiotics.
The discovery of antimicrobials and their intense use, which started in the 1940s, had a deep impact on the human welfare, which over the last six decades has drastically improved. Their discovery has increased life expectancy considerably and has allowed the global health to reach higher standards. However, especially in the past decade, we have witnessed the exponential growth of antimicrobial resistant (AMR) bacteria, a threat that casts shadows over the medical “miracles” we take for granted. AMR bacteria, also known as “SuperBugs”, are normal pathogenic bacteria that have developed a resistance against commonly use antibiotics. This makes them resistant to treatments and potentially lethal.
This project aims to offer a solid solution to the dwindling effectiveness of antibiotics against infectious diseases caused by the development of AMR bacteria.
To achieve this goal we took as model abyssomicin C, which is a natural product isolated from an actinobacter found in deep-sea sediment of the Sea of Japan. Studies performed on this compound showed that it possess interesting antimicrobial activities in particular against AMR bacteria.
The core of this proposal is to implement an innovative synthetic strategy to access truncated derivatives of abyssomicin C. The creation of a number of structurally related compounds together with computational studies will allow the identification of new potent antimicrobial agents, an important countermeasure against AMR bacteria.
If successful, this project could have a deep impact not only in the scientific community but also on the healthcare systems in Europe and globally.
