Abstract

To stop the antimicrobial resistance crisis, there is an urgent need for increased investment in antimicrobial research and development. Currently, many researchers are focussing on insects and their microbiota in the search for new antimicrobials. This review summarizes recent literature dedicated to the antimicrobial screening of insect symbionts and/or their metabolites to uncover their value in early drug discovery. We summarize the main steps in the methodology used to isolate and identify active insect symbionts and have noted substantial variation among these studies. There is a clear trend in isolating insect Streptomyces bacteria, but a broad range of other symbionts has been found to be active as well. The microbiota of many insect genera and orders remains untargeted so far, which leaves much room for future research. The antimicrobial screening of insect symbionts has led to the discovery of a diverse array of new active biomolecules, mainly peptides, and polyketides. Here, we discuss 15 of these symbiont-produced compounds and their antimicrobial profile. Cyphomycin, isolated from a Streptomyces symbiont of a Cyphomyrmex fungus-growing ant, seems to be the most promising insect symbiont-derived antimicrobial so far. Overall, insect microbiota appears to be a promising search area to discover new antimicrobial drug candidates.

摘要

为了阻止抗微生物药物耐药性危机，迫切需要增加对抗微生物药物研发的投资。目前，许多研究人员正专注于昆虫及其微生物群，以寻找新的抗菌剂。本综述总结了最近致力于昆虫共生体和/或其代谢物的抗菌筛选的文献，以揭示它们在早期药物发现中的价值。我们总结了用于分离和识别活跃昆虫共生体的方法中的主要步骤，并注意到这些研究之间存在重大差异。分离昆虫链霉菌有明显趋势细菌，但广泛的其他共生体也被​​发现具有活性。到目前为止，许多昆虫属和目的微生物群仍未被靶向，这为未来的研究留下了很大的空间。昆虫共生体的抗菌筛选导致发现了多种新的活性生物分子，主要是肽和聚酮化合物。在这里，我们讨论了这些共生体产生的化合物中的 15 种及其抗菌特性。Cyphomycin 从Cyphomyrmex真菌生长蚂蚁的Streptomyces共生体中分离出来，似乎是迄今为止最有前途的昆虫共生体衍生的抗菌剂。总体而言，昆虫微生物群似乎是发现新的抗微生物药物候选物的一个有希望的搜索领域。