The microbiome represents a vast resource for drug discovery, as its members engage in constant conflict to outcompete one another by deploying diverse strategies for survival. Cutibacterium acnes is one of the most common bacterial species on human skin and can promote the common disease acne vulgaris. By employing a combined strategy of functional screening, genetics, and proteomics we discovered a strain of Staphylococcus capitis (S. capitis E12) that selectively inhibited growth of C. acnes with potency greater than antibiotics commonly used in the treatment of acne. Antimicrobial peptides secreted from S. capitis E12 were identified as four distinct phenol-soluble modulins acting synergistically. These peptides were not toxic to human keratinocytes and the S. capitis extract did not kill other commensal skin bacteria but was effective against C. acnes on pig skin and on mice. Overall, these data show how a member of the human skin microbiome can be useful as a biotherapy for acne vulgaris.

微生物组代表了药物发现的巨大资源，因为其成员通过部署不同的生存策略，不断地进行冲突以在竞争中胜出。痤疮皮肤杆菌是人类皮肤上最常见的细菌种类之一，可以促进寻常痤疮的常见疾病。通过采用功能筛选、遗传学和蛋白质组学的组合策略，我们发现了一种头葡萄球菌( S. capitis E12)菌株，其选择性抑制痤疮丙酸杆菌的生长，其效力比治疗痤疮常用的抗生素更强。S. capitis分泌的抗菌肽E12 被鉴定为四种不同的酚溶性调制蛋白，它们具有协同作用。这些肽对人角质形成细胞没有毒性，头孢菌素提取物不会杀死其他共生皮肤细菌，但对猪皮肤和小鼠的痤疮丙酸杆菌有效。总的来说，这些数据显示了人类皮肤微生物组的一个成员如何可以用作寻常痤疮的生物疗法。