How Teixobactin Interact With Bacteria

In the field of science, new discoveries are being made every day. Even though scientists are finding new things every day, over 99% of bacteria or antibiotics aren’t discovered. However, recently a new antibiotic called teixobactin was discovered. This antibiotic prevents the synthesis of a cell wall by binding to a motif of lipid II and lipid III molecules. The goal of this experiment was to discover how teixobactin interact with bacteria and how it is able to effectively kill pathogens. A device called the iChip was used to discover teixobactin. The iChip helped to isolate and grow uncultured bacteria. Multiple iChips were covered with two semi-permeable membranes and placed into soil from Maine that was diluted with 10 mL of water. Nutrients
Gram – positive bacteria’s cell wall has a thick peptidoglycan layer. Texiobactin is ineffective against most Gram – negative bacteria. It makes sense that teixobactin is effective against most Gram – positive bacteria because teixobactin has the ability to inhibit the synthesis of peptidoglycan. If peptidoglycan synthesis is inhibited then this cause a cell to burst. Since Gram – positive bacteria have a thick peptidoglycan layer, if that bacteria is exposed to teixobactin, then that peptidoglycan layer can weaken and that bacteria won’t be able to synthesize anymore. If the peptidoglycan layer becomes too weak, the cell will burst and die. Gram – negative bacteria have a thin peptidoglycan layer and they also have an outer membrane. Since Gram – negative bacteria have a thin layer and an outer membrane, the teixobactin can’t effectively get to the peptidoglycan layer. If it can’t effectively get to that layer, it might cause little damage to the bacteria but it shouldn’t cause the bacteria to
Wall teichoic acids are anionic glycopolymers. They have many roles in gram – positive bacteria, like regulating cell division and they help prevent unregulated hydrolysis of peptidoglycan. Since teixobactin has the ability to bind to wall teichoic acid, it inhibits the synthesis of WTA. This inhibition contributes to the effectiveness of this antibiotic against gram – positive bacteria because preventing the synthesis of WTA will affect the synthesis of peptidoglycan and will cause the cell wall to be digested. Teixobactin was tested in vivo to see how efficient it is in animals. In of the experiments, mice were injected with a lethal dose of methicillin – resistant S. aureus. Afterwards they were injected with different doses of teixobactin. All the mice survived in the experiment. Later it was determined that the safe and protective dose of teixobactin is 0.2 mg per kg. Based on all the research and experiments that were done on teixobactin show that teixobactin is effective against drug – resistant pathogens in various animals. The research also shows that teixobactin can bind to various compounds, such as lipid II. As of right now there is no resistance to teixobactin, however over time, resistance may form from a resistance mechanism of another