Prof Gibbons: Projects

Anti-infective agents from plants

Traditional anti-infective drug discovery has focused on bacteria (especially, Actinomycetes) as a sources of antibiotic leads, and surprisingly, plants remain a relatively untapped source of potential antibiotic lead molecules. There is an ever growing need for the discovery of new classes of antibiotics, since bacteria continue to develop multidrug resistance (MDR) mechanisms which display a broad spectrum for many antibiotic substrates. Professor Simon Gibbons and his team are interested in the discovery of compounds which are active against MDR strains of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Escherichia coli. These agents may display antibiotic activity or be modulators with no inherent antibiotic activity but which inhibit resistance mechanisms associated with these MDR bacteria. The group are also studying antibacterial plant compounds with activity against species of Mycobacterium, the genus which includes tuberculosis producing bacteria (FGM).

Smith, E.C.J., Kaatz, G.W., Seo, S.M., Wareham, N., Williamson, E.M. and Gibbons, S.  (2007).  The Phenolic Diterpene Totarol Inhibits Multidrug Efflux Pump Activity in Staphylococcus aureus.  Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy 51 (12) 4480-4483.

Michalet, S., Cartier, G., Stavri, M., David, B., Mariotte, A-M., Dijoux-Franca, M-G., Kaatz, G.W. and Gibbons, S.  (2007).  N-Caffeoylphenalkylamide Derivatives as Bacterial Efflux Pump Inhibitors.  Bioorganic Medicinal Chemistry Letters 17, 1755-1758.

Xiao, Z.Y., Mu, Q., Shiu, W.K.P., Zeng, Y.H. and Gibbons, S. (2007).  Polyisoprenylated Benzoylphloroglucinol Derivatives from Hypericum sampsonii.  Journal of Natural Products, 70, 1779-1782.