Abstract
ANTIBIOTICS of the group that includes the penicillins, the cephalosporins, D-cycloserine and vancomycin, act by interfering with the biosynthesis of bacterial cell walls1,2. This is achieved by inhibiting the formation, or the subsequent utilisation in cross-linking, of the terminal D-Ala-D-Ala units which occur in the peptide chains of the cell-wall peptidoglycans of all pathogenic bacteria so far investigated3–5. We have sought new synthetic compounds, related to D-Ala-D-Ala, that have similar antibacterial action. We report here that certain phosphonopeptides, of which L-alanyl-‘L’-l-aminoethylphosphonic acid (alaphosphin) is typical, inhibit the growth of various important pathogenic bacteria in vitro and in infected animals.
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ALLEN, J., ATHERTON, F., HALL, M. et al. Phosphonopeptides, a new class of synthetic antibacterial agents. Nature 272, 56–58 (1978). https://doi.org/10.1038/272056a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/272056a0
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