The discovery of cell wall active antibacterial antibiotics.
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Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to E O Stapley.
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A new, competitive, nonpeptide cholecystokinin (CCK) antagonist, asperlicin, was isolated from the fungus Aspergillus alliaceus. The compound has 300 to 400 times the affinity for pancreatic, ileal, and gallbladder CCK receptors than proglumide, a standard agent of this class. Moreover, asperlicin is highly selective for peripheral CCK receptors relative to brain CCK and gastrin receptors. Since asperlicin also exhibits long-lasting CCK antagonist activity in vivo, it should provide a valuable tool for investigating the physiological and pharmacological actions of CCK.
A computer program has been prepared for grouping soil actinomycetes into cluster groups based on the presence or absence of aerial mycelium, the color of soluble pigment, and the shade of color of surface and reverse mycelium. The program automatically condenses cultures with wide ranges of characteristics into a limited number of groups and provides a permanent record so that comparisons can be made among experiments performed over a span of time. The program permits the grouping of large numbers of cultures with minimal laboratory effort and has proven useful in defining some of the ecological factors that lead to changed actinomycete populations in soils.
The maximum yield for the production of L-681,110 by Streptomyces sp. MA-5038 (ATCC 31587) was observed after 5 days' incubation at 28 degrees C and pH about 8.3. L-681,110 was isolated from the fermentation broth by acetone extraction of the mycelia, absorption to Amberlite XAD-2 resin and two separations by thin-layer chromatography. The structure of L-681,110 was found to consist of a sixteen-membered lactone with a new type of substitution. The inhibition of ATPase, activity against Caenorhabditis elegans and stimulation of gamma-aminobutyric acid release indicate that L-681,110 possesses some characteristics of both oligomycin and avermectin. L-681,110 was also active against tapeworm and ticks in an in vivo assay.
Ivermectin is the 22,23-dihydro derivative of avermectin B1, a macrocyclic lactone produced by an actinomycete, Streptomyces avermitilis. It is active at extremely low dosage against a wide variety of nematode and arthropod parasites, apparently by virtue of its action on the mediation of neurotransmission by gamma-aminobutyric acid. It is now in commercial use in various countries for the treatment and control of parasites in cattle, horses, and sheep, and is expected to become available for use in swine and dogs. Since studies with the drug in man are in a preliminary stage, it is not yet known whether ivermectin will be useful in human medicine.
The novel beta-lactam, L-640,876, exhibited excellent therapeutic activity when administered parenterally but not orally to mice infected with a variety of pathogenic bacteria. In this respect, the compound was as potent as cefotaxime against representative Gram-positive and Gram-negative organisms, in most cases, equal to or more potent than cefoxitin, and more effective than mecillinam. When administered subcutaneously to normal mice at dose levels ranging from 10 to 50 mg/kg, L-640,876 provided an adequate dose response, recovery of ca. 45% of biological activity in the urine, and excellent distribution at the highest dose level into liver, lung, kidney, heart muscle, but not brain.
The paw-licking response of rats to a subplantar injection of an antibiotic was used as an indicator of the pain caused by that antibiotic. Good agreement with clinical findings was obtained with cefoxitin, cephalothin, cephradine, cefazolin, cephaloridine, and carbenicillin. Incorporation of a local anesthetic into the diluent of an irritating antibiotic reduced the number of paw-licking episodes. This rat paw model offers a simple and rapid means of estimating pain-on-injection following intramuscular injection of antibiotics to humans and may be applicable to other drugs as well.
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Agar minimal inhibitory concentrations and mouse protection test effective doses were determined for each of four beta-lactam antibiotics against each of 12 Gram-negative and 3 Gram-positive bacterial cultures. The beta-lactamase activity of these cultures also was studied. The data were examined to determine whether relative in vivo efficacies could be predicted from relative in vitro activities. Although such predictions were quite accurate for cefoxitin and cefazolin, this was not true for cefamandole or for cephalothin. Such poor predictability was not necessarily associated with the susceptibility of these cephalosporins to hydrolysis by bacterial beta-lactamases. Although the clinical significance of these observations is not known, these data emphasize that relative in vitro activities should be used only with caution to estimate in vivo efficacies, since not all compounds show the excellent predictability observed here for cefazolin and cefoxitin.
The avermectins are a complex of chemically related agents which exhibit extraordinarily potent anthelmintic activity. They are produced by a novel species of actinomycete, NRRL 8165, which we have named Streptomyces avermitilis. The morphological and cultural characteristics which differentiate the producing organism from other species are described. The avermectins have been identified as a series of macrocyclic lactone derivatives which, in contrast to the macrolide or polyene antibiotics, lack significant antibacterial or antifungal activity. The avermectin complex is fully active against the gastrointestinal nematode Nematospiroides dubius when fed to infected mice for 6 days at 0.0002% of the diet. Fermentation development, including medium modification and strain selection, resulted in increasing the broth yields from 9 to 500 mug/ml.
A new beta-lactam antibiotic, named thienamycin, was discovered in culture broths of Streptomyces MA4297. The producing organism, subsequently determined to be a hitherto unrecognized species, is designated Streptomyces cattleya (NRRL 8057). The antibiotic was isolated by adsorption on Dowex 50, passage through Dowex 1, further chromatography on Dowex 50 and Bio-Gel P2, and final purification and desalting on XAD-2. Thienamycin is zwitterionic, has the elemental composition C11H16N2O4S (M.W. = 272.18) and possesses a distinctive UV absorption (lambda max = 297 nm, epsilon = 7,900). Its beta-lactam is unusually sensitive to hydrolysis above pH8 and to reaction with nucleophiles such as hydroxylamine, cysteine and, to a lesser degree, the primary amine of the antibiotic itself. The latter reaction results in accelerated inactivation at high antibiotic concentrations.
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Fosfomycin, a nontoxic broad-spectrum antibiotic, different in structure from all previously described antibiotics, acts selectively by inhibiting cell wall formation. It was overlooked during many years of screening because of antagonism by culture medium ingredients and frequent occurrence of resistant mutants. It is effective in many because the neutralizing substances are not present and resistant mutants of most species are avirulent. Fosfomycin has favorable pharmacologic characteristics. It is not cross resistant, does not show antagonism, and has been used successfully in combinations. An insoluble calcium salt is used in oral formulation and a sodium salt for parenteral administration. Overall success rates of 86% were reported with 1,000 patients in Spain and 79% in Japan.
Haemophilus influenzae is an important pathogen in respiratory infections in children and often is implicated in otitis media. It is sensitive in vitro to a number of antibiotics, some of which are used clinically for the treatment of such infections. We have checked the in vitro sensitivity of a type b strain of H. influenzae. When tested in Levinthal's broth prepared with laked rabbit blood, the culture was most sensitive to tetracycline, ampicillin and penicillin and was somewhat less sensitive to cephalothin, fosfomycin, cephaloridine, and chloramphenicol. However, when this same strain was used to infect mice, fosfomycin was more active than ampicillin, tetracycline, chloramphenicol, penicillin or the cephalosporins.
Cefoxitin, a new semisynthetic cephamycin antibiotic, induced filament formation at subinhibitory concentrations with a beta-lactamaseless strain of Enterobacter cloacae (HSC 18410 M66). The extent of filament induction by cefoxitin was similar to that seen with cephalothin, cefazolin, and benzylpenicillin. Filament induction by cefoxitin was markedly less than that seen with cephalexin, carbenicillin, ticarcillin, cephradine, and cephapirin. Antibiotics which failed to induce filaments at any level tested included cephaloridine, cephacetrile, cephalosporin C, the cephamycins, 6-aminopenicillanic acid, 7-aminocephalosporanic acid, A16884, A16886, and FL-1060. Those antimicrobial agents tested which lacked an aromatic substituent in the 7-position (for cephems) or in the 6-position (for penams) did not induce filaments. These observations suggest a possible relationship between filament induction of the test organism and the molecular nature of constituents in the 7- or 6-position of beta-lactams.
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