The History, Function, and Resistance Associated with Vancomycin, a Glycopeptide Antibiotic

Ever since the discovery of antibiotics in the 1920’s, treating bacterial infections in humans, and animals alike, has emerged as a revolutionary possibility. Antibiotics are drugs that are naturally produced by bacteria or fungus to defend against other bacteria via death or inhibiting reproduction (1). Since their detection, antibiotics have been diversified into many different forms and classes which are arranged by mode of action. Glycopeptides are a class of antibiotics which are composed of glycolsylated cyclic or polycyclic nonribosomal peptides that inhibit cell wall synthesis in susceptible bacteria (2). However, it was soon discovered that the use of these antibiotic drugs would lead to antibiotic resistance. This paper will discuss the history, function, and resistance associated with vancomycin, a glycopeptide antibiotic.

History

Vancomycin, which is a specific antibiotic that falls under the glycopeptide subset of antibiotics was first discovered from a soil sample in the Bornea jungle by Dr. E. C. Kornfield during an antimicrobial research program in 1953 (2). Vancomycin is a bactericide collected from a strain of bacteria known as Streptomyces orientalis, and upon its initial mass production in the 1950s, was found to have many impurities which may have led to its early ototoxic and nephrotoxic properties making it a secondary drug upon initial approval by the FDA (3). However, it has since been more highly purified, and those properties have dissipated leaving a very pure, low toxicity antimicrobial agent. It is now used a last resort antibiotic and most prominently administered intravenously; however, studies are taking place to interpret the best way to administer the drug as new Vancomycin-resistant species h...

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