Microbes to Man: From Soils and the Depths to Drugs

Abstract

This article covers microbially sourced antibiotics and anticancer agents that have either been approved by regulatory agencies (US and EU), are awaiting approval or are generally in Phases I–Phase III (cancer) or Phase I–IV (antibiotics). Also included are discussions of compounds that have been “developed” by synthetic chemists using as their templates, materials originally from microbes. Included are discussions on developments with genetic analyses of as yet uncultured (perhaps unculturable in the case of some symbionts), including use of environmental DNA (eDNA) as routes to novel agents where the microbe is unknown, even “unknowable.” In addition, examples are given of how agents that are too toxic to act as pharmaceutical agents in their own right, have now become major components of novel treatments for cancer treatment by linking these “toxins” to monoclonal antibodies directed to particular epitopes on cancerous cells, thus delivering highly toxic and effective agents directly to the site(s) needed. Comments have also been made about the lack of new antimicrobials, in particular directed toward fungal infections and the ESKAPE pathogen series, where agents long out of use, are now acting as templates upon which to design novel potent compounds.