Abstract

New Class of Glycopeptide Antibiotics: Strategies to Combat Acquired and Intrinsic Bacterial Resistance

Jayanta Haldar, Associate Professor, Jawaharlal Nehru Centre For Advanced Scientific Research

Vancomycin, long considered as the “antibiotic of last resort" for MDR Gram-positive bacterial infections, has been rendered ineffective by vancomycin-resistant bacteria (VRE, VISA, VRSA). Additionally, vancomycin is inherently inactive towards Gram-negative pathogens (GNPs) because of its inability to cross the outer membrane (OM). In this talk I will discuss the various semi-synthetic strategies that we have developed to combat both acquired and inherent resistance of bacteria towards vancomycin. We believe that these synthetically simple designs have high potential in the field of antibiotic development to combat drug-resistant bacterial infections.