Pseudouridimycin: The First Nucleoside Analogue That Selectively Inhibits Bacterial RNA Polymerase

Abstract

Seek, and ye shall find: After years of focusing research on synthetic antibiotics out of fear that all the useful natural ones had already been found, a novel antibacterial compound has been discovered through conventional microbial extract screening. The broad-spectrum nucleoside-analogue inhibitor pseudouridimycin is selective for bacterial RNA polymerase and elicits very low resistance rates.

Keywords: RNA polymerase; antibiotics; medicinal chemistry; natural products; nucleoside analogues.