ANTIBIOTICS that self-destruct in sunlight will stop bacteria developing
resistance so quickly, say chemists in the US. Antibiotics that survive in the
environment help bacteria to evolve resistance, making infections
untreatable.
In a paper to be published in the Journal of Medicinal Chemistry,
Shahriar Mobashery and colleagues from Wayne State University in Detroit,
Michigan, describe how they modified a b-lactam antibiotic to contain a
hydrazine group masked by a nitrobenzyloxycarbonyl goup. Under sunlight, the
nitrobenzyloxycarbonyl falls off, exposing the hydrazine, which attacks the
antibiotic to stop it working. 鈥淚t鈥檚 the first molecule of its kind,鈥� says
Mobasherry, 鈥渂ut the principle is valid for any antibiotic.鈥�
