Tedizolid is a member of the oxazolidinone class of antibiotics. These antibiotics are considered drugs of last resort against multiple drug resistant infections such as methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). As part of a program to encourage new antibiotics to combat drug resistance, the FDA fast-tracked the approval of tedizolid for MRSA skin and skin structure infections in 2014.
Tedizolid works by binding to the 50S ribosomal subunit in bacteria, which inhibits protein synthesis.
The medical community often repurposes FDA-approved drugs to treat new diseases. Recently, Tang et al. investigated tedizolid’s potential to treat M. abscessus complex, a mixture of M. abscessus, M. massiliense, and M. bolletii bacteria. M. abscessus complex is notoriously difficult to treat when it infects the lungs. The standard therapy of clarithromycin and amikacin has only a 30-50% cure rate.
Tang et al. compared tedizolid’s effectiveness to clarithromycin and linezolid, another oxazolindone antibiotic. They applied a series of concentrations of antibiotic to M. abscessus cultures to determine the minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC). Tedizolid has a comparable MIC to linezolid and a lower MIC than clarithromycin.
A time-kill assay determined that tedizolid is bacteriostatic, not bactericidal against M. abscessus complex. Pre-exposure to low concentrations of tedizolid did not induce resistance. Tedizolid does not have antagonistic interactions with other antibiotics. Together, these experiments suggest tedizolid could be used in combination therapy to treat M. abscessus complex.
LKT Labs carries a number of antiobiotic compounds for research use, including:
Tang YW, Cheng B, Yeoh SF, Lin RTP, Teo JWP. Tedizolid Activity Against Clinical Mycobacterium abscessus Complex Isolates-An in vitro Characterization Study. Front Microbiol. 2018 Sep 7;9:2095. doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2018.02095.