Naturally occurring antibiotics

The number of naturally occurring antibiotics increased from about 30 known in 1945, to 150 in 1949, 450 in 1953, 1200 in 1960, and to 10,000 by 1990 (1,9). Table 1 Hsts the years of historical importance to the development of antibiotics used for treatment in humans. Most of the antibiotics introduced since the 1970s have been derived from synthetic modifications of the P-lactam antibiotics (qv). 

A second source of inspiration for studying the open-chained equivalents of crown ethers was the observation that a number of naturally occurring antibiotics enhance cation transport and bear a structural similarity to open-chained crown ethers. A number of groups have examined neutral synthetic ionophores and a variety of novel cation carriers is now available. This is discussed in Sect. 7.4, below. 

Terreic acid is a naturally occurring antibiotic substance. Its actual structure is an enol isomer of the structure shown. Write the two most stable enol forms of terreic acid, and choose which of those two is more stable. 

Allenes are compounds with adjacent carbon-carbon double bonds. Many allenes are chiral, even though they don t contain chirality centers. Mycomycin, for example, a naturally occurring antibiotic isolated from the bacterium Nocardia acidophilus, is chiral and has = -130. Explain why mycomycin is chiral. Making a molecular model should be helpful. 

The 6-substituted 1,4-dioxocins can be used to prepare other 6-substituted derivatives by simple functional group transformations.4,8,9 Especially interesting is the synthesis of the 4/7-4-oxo-2,3-dihydropyran-2-yl-substituted derivative 16 from l,4-dioxocin-6-carbaldehyde (15) by a cyclocondcnsation with Danishefsky s diene.9 Dehydrogenation of 16 yields 2 which can be isomerized to the corresponding isomeric. sr/i-benzene dioxide 3 (X = 4/f-4-oxopyran-2-yl), which is identical with and proved the structure of the naturally occurring antibiotic LL-Z 1220.10... 

Since /1-lactams can be prepared via reactions of ester enolates with imines, these reactions are of great interest for synthetic and medicinal chemists. The synthesis of naturally occurring antibiotics and other physiologically active //-lactams is an objective of much current work. Though the stereocenters in those reactions are often established by addition of enolates to imines, they are discussed in Section D.1.6.1.3. In this section, only some basic results concerning //-lactams are presented. 

L)-Phosphinotricin 67, which is the active component of naturally occurring antibiotic biolaphos, was synthesized from the corresponding keto acid 66 via reductive amination catalysed by L-glutamate dehydrogenase (EDH) (Equation 32)7 ... 

Anchel, M. Some Naturally Occurring Antibiotic Polyacetylenes. Trans. 

The complexation of the alkaline earth metals is reminiscent of the behaviour of several of the naturally occurring antibiotics and, like the latter, the crown often exhibits remarkable selectivity for particular ions. The thermodynamic factors underlying the selectivity of many of the crowns have been studied in some depth and the results related to such parameters as cavity size, number of donor atoms present, possible ring conformations on complex formation and the solvation energies of the various species involved. 

There are two general classes of naturally-occurring antibiotics which influence the transport of alkali metal cations through natural and artificial membranes. The first category contains neutral macrocyclic species which usually bind potassium selectively over sodium. The second (non-cyclic) group contains monobasic acid functions which help render the alkaline metal complexes insoluble in water but soluble in non-polar solvents (Lauger, 1972 Painter Pressman, 1982). The present discussion will be restricted to (cyclic) examples from the first class. 

Nitro sugars can also be prepared by oxidation of hydroxylamines. This strategy was used in 1999 by Nicolau et al. for the preparation of nitro sugar 9, a component of the natural occurring antibiotic everninomicin,11 that was obtained by ozonolysis of compound 8 followed by sequential treatment of the resulting compound with TFA and triphenylphosphine (Scheme 4). 

Antamanide, a cyclodecapetide, is the first naturally-occurring antibiotic discovered to be selective for sodium and against potassium. Its constitution was established chemically as (IX) (71), which lacks the repetition characteristic of the other macrocyclic antibiotics, and it also differs from them in consisting entirely of L-residues. 

Protein synthesis is a central function in cellular physiology and is the primary target of many naturally occurring antibiotics and toxins. Except as noted, these antibiotics inhibit protein synthesis in bacteria. The differences between bacterial and eukaryotic protein synthesis, though in some cases subtle, are sufficient that most of the compounds discussed below are relatively harmless to eukaryotic cells. Natural selection has favored the evolution of compounds that exploit minor differences in order to affect bacterial systems selectively, such that these biochemical weapons are synthesized by some microorganisms and are extremely toxic to others. Because nearly every step in protein synthesis can be specifically inhibited by one antibiotic or another, antibiotics have become valuable tools in the study of protein biosynthesis. 

N-Methyl derivatives of pyrimido[5,4e][l,2,4]triazine-5,7-dione are the naturally occurring antibiotics fervenulin (planomycin 815), toxoflavin (xanthothricin 816) and reumycin (817). The related antibiotic MSD-92 is 2,6,8-trimethylpyrimido[5,4-e]-[l,2,4]triazine-3,5,7-trione (818) (78HC(33)189, p. 808). 

Rifampicin is a synthetic derivative of a naturally occurring antibiotic, rifamycin, that inhibits bacterial DNA-dependent RNA polymerase but not T7 RNA polymerase or eukaryotic RNA polymerases. It binds tightly to the ft subunit. Although it does not prevent promoter binding or formation of the first phosphodiester bond, it effectively prevents synthesis of longer RNA chains. It does not inhibit elongation when added after initiation has occurred. Another antibiotic, streptolydigin, also binds to the ft subunit it inhibits all bond formation. 

Besides acid stability and resistance against /flactamases, the ideal antibiotic should feature broad-spectrum utility against various bacteria and effectiveness against bacterial problem strains which cannot be combated by naturally occurring antibiotics or which develop resistance, such as the problem strain in hospitals, Staphylococcus aureus. 

---