Eleftheria terrae... Will this Organism Change Our Clinical Work?

Just recently in 2014 the WHO has requested to develop a draft global action plan to combat emergent antimicrobial resistance (AMR). AMR is present in all parts of the world, new resistance mechanisms emerge and spread globally. And most importantly: Patients with infections by drug-resistant bacteria are generally at risk of worse clinical outcome and death.

On the background of this the recent publication in Nature by Ling et al. is remarkable as it might offer the key to a new antimicrobial weapon in the near future. Teixobactin is the name of a macrocylic peptide representing a new class of antibiotics. It appears to be potent bactericidal agent against a broad panel of bacterial pathogens, especially gram-positive bacteria including MRSA, enterococci and VRE as well as M. tuberculosis, C. difficile and Anthrax. Teixobactin inhibits cell wall synthesis and most remarkably showed no development of resistance so far.

Teixobactin is produced by E. terrae, a microorganism discovered in  the soil of a grassy field in Maine. As mentioned in the article, these 'uncultured' bacteria make up approximately 99% of all species in external environments, and are an untapped source of new antibiotics. 

An interesting article, especially if you want to see what's going on outside the hospital!


Ling LL et al. Nature 2015; doi:10.1038/nature14098

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