What molecule am I?
Lugdunin is a 21-membered cyclic peptide that consists of 6 amino acid residues plus a thiazolidine moiety. Five of the amino acids are聽L-valine and the sixth is聽L-tryptophan.
This past year, Andreas Peschel, Bernhard Krismer, and colleagues at the University of T眉bingen (Germany) and the German Center for Infection Research (T眉bingen) discovered that a bacterium that resides in the human nose combats disease-causing聽Staphylococcus aureus. The bacterium,听S. lugdunensis,听
The discovery of lugdunin explains why not all people infected by聽S. aureus聽get sick. In laboratory experiments, the macrocyclic antibiotic even killed methicillin-resistant聽Staphylococcus aureus聽(MRSA) and vancomycin-resistant enterococci.
Scientists believe that the human body contains other bacteria that produce antimicrobials. The hunt is on!
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