Thiopeptide antibiotics

Antibiotic producers adopt different self-defnse mechanisms in order to avoid their own suicide. Characterizing the strategies used by either the producers or related bacterial strains to avoid intoxication requires a detailed understanding of how each antibiotic class functions as well as knowledge of the biosynthetic machinery operating in the organism to predict mechanisms of multi-drug resistance (MDR) prior to their clinical emergence in the design of new or strategically modified treatments. This review covers thiopeptide antibiotics. Drawing on structural information on the thiopeptides, the structural basis of their biological properties and its relevance to how producing and nonproducing bacterial strains resist their action are emphasized. Current synthetic technology for the assembly of these complex targets in the chemical laboratory is also outlined as well as advances that these studies have made in the understanding of this rapidly expanding family.