Researchers have been keenly searching for effective antimicrobial agents to overcome antimicrobial resistance (AMR) problems. In such an effort, the safety of streptothricin, a component of nourseothricin produced by actinomyces, was reexamined. Streptothricin is an antibiotic isolated in 1942 and was discontinued due to its renal toxicity. Now, nourseothricin and its main components, streptothricin F (S-F) and streptothricin D (S-D), were purified using modern techniques and tested.
S-D exhibited more efficiency than S-F and nourseothricin in minimal inhibitory concentration tests against carbapenem-resistant Enterobacterales (CRE). Both S-F and nourseothricin displayed rapid bactericidal activity against AMR Klebsiella pneumoniae and Acinetobacter baumannii within two hours. S-F and S-D were about 40 times more selective towards prokaryotic ribosomes than eukaryotic ribosomes. In a…
