Nature Communications: A Synthetic D-Amino-Acid Peptide Kills Multidrug-Resistant Pneumonia Bacteria and Restores Antibiotic Sensitivity
A study in Nature Communications describes a linear antimicrobial peptide built from four D-tryptophan/D-arginine/D-lysine repeats that stays stable in the body and kills multidrug-resistant bacteria, including MRSA and Klebsiella pneumoniae. In bacterial pneumonia models, the peptide acted through membrane targeting alongside DNA binding, reactive-oxygen accumulation, and ATP depletion, showed low potential to drive resistance, and helped restore sensitivity to existing antibiotics.