this post was submitted on 13 Sep 2025
11 points (100.0% liked)

Pharmacology - Drug Nerds

6 readers
18 users here now

DrugNerds is a community for informed discussion about drug chemistry and pharmacology. It is intended to have a wider focus than the de facto preoccupation with psychoactive drugs in the subreddit of the same name. Content about ALL types of drugs is welcomed and encouraged!

Moderators will not hesitate to ban those who have not read the rules. No warnings are given - if you do not have the initiative to read the rules before posting, you may not post here.

In short, this community is NOT for questions where you need an answer from experts, but for people who have done some research and want a good discussion about the issue in question. You do not have to be trained in pharmacology to post, but you should have a command of basic science.

Rules

  1. No questions needing an answer from experts. Posts which demonstrate a lack of basic understanding of the subject matter, a lack of willingness to investigate on one's own, or a need for answers based on personal drug use or that of family, friends, etc will be removed.
  2. No medical advice, questions about personal drug use, consumption methods, etc. This community is not for asking medical questions, giving medical advice or asking about personal drug use.
  3. ABSOLUTELY NO requesting, hinting or sharing sources for drugs. Naming, linking to, or requesting sources in any context, whether legal or illegal, for any reason, will result in a very long ban.
  4. Posts and questions must contain some degree of research done. While we understand that not everybody is knowledgeable in drugs and pharmacology, we kindly ask that you include some degree of research done. As such, posts based purely on vibes are not allowed, and any questions asked MUST be accompanied by links to the resources uncovered in pre-research.
  5. You must read and understand the rules of the community before participating. First posts which break the rules may result in an immediate ban. You must not encourage rule-breaking posts by responding unless responding to make them aware of the rules.
  6. Don't be an asshole. Treat others with respect. If you try to rules-lawyer this one, expect a ban.
  7. No memes, no stoner / "drug culture" content, and no low-effort content.

founded 21 hours ago
MODERATORS
ThorrJo@lemmy.sdf.org
11
A synthetic antibiotic class with a deeply-optimized design for overcoming bacterial resistance (www.nature.com)
submitted 20 hours ago by ThorrJo@lemmy.sdf.org to c/DrugNerds@lemmy.sdf.org
1 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

tl;dr: researchers used Structure-Based Drug Design to derive a new antibiotic from florfenicol which shows effectiveness against a number of antibiotic-resistant bacteria.

Structure-based drug design (SBDD) aims to design small-molecule ligands that bind with high affinity and specificity to pre-determined protein targets.

top 1 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] ThorrJo@lemmy.sdf.org 4 points 19 hours ago

What's interesting about this one is that they were trying to optimize binding at the site in the bacterial ribosome where florfenicol is known to bind, and indeed improved it, but in doing so appear to have stumbled upon an additional mode of action, by binding to a protein called arcB which is critical for aspects of arginine metabolism in many bacteria, arginine metabolism being very important for many normal cell functions. Arginine metabolism may play a role in maintenance of the bacterial cell membrane, and the bacteria did seem to be leaking their contents into the environment at a higher rate after application of the compound, among other effects.

My interpretation here, but the fact that this compound is active at both the same site as the compound it was based on, and an entirely different site which also happens to be critical to bacterial metabolism, makes it very interesting from a drug resistance perspective, because a given strain of bacteria would potentially need more adaptations to successfully resist the drug than to resist a drug which is only active at one site.