Tinashe Prince Maviza, Dmitrii Lukianov, Petr Sergiev and Ilya Osterman from Skoltech have co-authored a paper “Biological evaluation and spectral characterization of a novel tetracenomycin X congener” that has been recently released in Biochimie journal. The paper was previously published as a preprint. Last year, the researchers have identified novel antibiotic affecting both bacterial and eukaryotic ribosomes – tetracenomycin X. In the current study, the scientists have described another previously unknown antibiotic that is highly similar to tetracenomycin X (TcmX). This compound, known as 6-hydroxytetraceonomycin X (6-OH-TcmX), is produced by the Amycolatopsis sp. A23 strain. The researchers have resolved the structure of 6-OH-TcmX. They have shown that in contrast to TcmX, 6-OH-TcmX exhibited lower antimicrobial and cytotoxic activity, but its inhibition ability was comparable to that of in vitro protein synthesis. Despite a significant influence of 6-hydroxylation on the tetracenomycin X chromophore, characteristic spectral properties of tetracenomycins make them suitable candidates for semi-synthetic drug development. Full text of the paper is available here.