New reactions in clavulanic acid biosynthesis.

Craig A Townsend

Journal: Current opinion in chemical biology 2003;6(5):583-9

PMID: 12413541

Full Text on Elsevier Science View on PubMed

Abstract

Clavulanic acid is only a modestly effective antibiotic against bacterial infections in humans, but a potent inhibitor/inactivator of beta-lactamase enzymes that confer bacterial resistance. The biosynthetic pathway to clavulanic acid is considerably more complex than that to the structurally related penicillins and cephalosporins and has revealed several interesting reactions.

Address: Department of Chemistry, The Johns Hopkins University, 3400 North Charles Street, Baltimore, MD 21218, USA. [email protected]

DOI: 10.1016/s1367-5931(02)00392-7