The prize Leibniz Drug of the Year 2020 was awarded to the team of Prof. Christian Hertweck from the Leibniz Institute for Natural Product Research and Infection Biology in Jena for the discovery of malleicyprols.
Malleicyprols are bacterial cyclopropanol-containing polyketides, which were identified by the Jena team as previously unknown virulence factors. They are produced by gram-negative bacteria belonging to the genus Burkholderia. Certain groups of these bacteria can cause re-emerging infectious diseases with high lethality in humans and animals, such as glanders and melioidosis. Due to limited treatment options with antibiotics they are considered a growing threat to global health.
In their study, the scientists showed that burkholderic acid from the pathogen Burkholderia pseudomallei that was correlated before with virulence in animals, is likely not the virulence factor. Therefore, the team investigated the bacterial biosynthesis machinery of the low-pathogenicity model organism B. thailandensis. By metabolic profiling and molecular network analysis, they discovered the actual virulence factors, called malleicyprols.
This new finding may facilitate the development of urgently needed therapeutics to combat the severe diseases glanders and melioidosis. The discovery of malleicyprols was published in Angewandte Chemie International Edition and has been awarded the “very important paper” status.