Hacker News Reader

HNHacker News

Top New Best Ask Show Jobs

Comment by RcouF1uZ4gsC | Hacker News Reader

Full thread

RcouF1uZ4gsC·

Tigecycline

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1426172/

is a new class of antibiotics discovered around 2005 that also works against resistant bacteria such as MRSA and VRE.

So while it is great they are coming up with new antibiotics, it is by no means the first in 60 years.

View on HN

Had the same issue on Reddit recently. Toxibaccin was discovered in soils in 2018. Hell I know someone who developed one recently at a university. It’s AMAZING AI can do this, but it certainly doesn’t destroy prior approaches. Yet.

Disclaimer: spelling and name of antibiotic may be incorrect. It is not my field, and the spelling is phonetic from myself. If pressed, I will ask the scientist for the specific name.

I expect you are referencing https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teixobactin

Discovered in some random dirt from Maine.

"Discovered" like penicillin? It irks me when it's presented as accidental, when it does go through testing after

Penicillin was also accidental? I don't understand the point.

Maybe he conflates discovery with accident. Materials science searches chemical space and makes discoveries. There is no accident in that kind of discovery?

Seems that is a tetracycline derivative? A class of antibiotics generally refers to the mechanism of action, so I'd think it wouldn't be a new class if it is derived from an existing one.

Ceftaroline

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/20334458/

Discovered about at the same time or later. Also works against MRSA.

Maybe this is a missing-comma type issue, and they mean that the last time that AI came up with an antibiotic was 60 years ago

where would you put the comma to fix that?

It’s the first comma in click-bait.

now for them to make one against viruses

Reply on news.ycombinator.com