Ramoplanin

Vancomycin, teicoplanin, and ramoplanin are potent glycopeptide antibiotics that act by inhibiting bacterial cell wall biosynthesis. The former are used clinically as the antibiotics of last resort for the treatment of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus and the latter is a promising new antibiotic that is not susceptible to the emerging bacterial resistance to vancomycin and teicoplanin. A summary of our recent total synthesis of the vancomycin aglycon, our first and second generation total syntheses of the teicoplanin aglycon, and our progress on the total synthesis of the ramoplanins is presented. This work lays the foundation for ongoing structure-function studies on the antibiotics that may clarify or define their site and mechanism of action leading to the development of improved or reengineered antibiotics.

In a previous study we found that fluorescence-marked vancomycin--a glycopeptide antibiotic--is taken up into human tumor cells. To expand on these investigations we now used the lipoglycodepsipeptide antibiotic ramoplanin. Compared to vancomycin it is not only a bigger molecule, but it also has two potential binding sites for coupling to the imaging agents. Three different ramoplanin imaging conjugates were synthesized, two used for fluorescence imaging and one for magnetic resonance imaging. The two fluorescent dyes used in confocal laser scanning microscopy (CLSM) and fluorescence activated cell sorting (FACS) were fluorescein isothiocyanate (FITC) and rhodamine isothiocyanate (RITC). The third was the magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) contrast agent gadolinium-1, 4, 7, 10-tetraazacyclododecane-1, 4, 7, 10-tetraacetic acid (GdDOTA). The uptake of ramoplanin conjugates, their specificity for different cell lines and the accessibility of the conjugates by imaging methods were evaluated on 8 human cell lines (two benign, six malignant) by CLSM, FACS and MRI experiments. Cytotoxicity of the ramoplanin conjugates was determined in the FACS experiments with the propidium iodide and Annexin-V-Fluos indicating any disruption in the cell membranes. Cytoplasmic uptake of the ramoplanin conjugates was observed in confocal laser scanning images and was measured using FACS and MRI experiments. Compared to the vancomycin conjugates the ramoplanin conjugates showed much weaker and slower uptake. Additionally, uptake of the ramoplanin conjugates led to strong membrane disruption and cell death.

The peptide antibiotic ramoplanin factor A2 is a promising clinical candidate for treatment of Gram-positive bacterial infections that are resistant to antibiotics such as glycopeptides, macrolides, and penicillins. Since its discovery in 1984, no clinical or laboratory-generated resistance to this antibiotic has been reported. The mechanism of action of ramoplanin involves sequestration of peptidoglycan biosynthesis Lipid intermediates, thus physically occluding these substrates from proper utilization by the late-stage peptidoglycan biosynthesis enzymes MurG and the transglycosylases (TGases). Ramoplanin is structurally related to two cell wall active lipodepsipeptide antibiotics, janiemycin, and enduracidin, and is functionally related to members of the lantibiotic class of antimicrobial peptides (mersacidin, actagardine, nisin, and epidermin) and glycopeptide antibiotics (vancomycin and teicoplanin). Peptidomimetic chemotherapeutics derived from the ramoplanin sequence may find future use as antibiotics against vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus faecium (VRE), methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), and related pathogens. Here we review the chemistry and biology of the ramoplanins including its discovery, structure elucidation, biosynthesis, antimicrobial activity, mechanism of action, and total synthesis.