Tuberculosis is one of the most widespread life-threatening infectious diseases. Not only does antibiotic resistance make treatment increasingly difficult, but the bacteria's relatively impermeable mycomembrane also limits the effectiveness of many drugs.
In search of new antibiotics, researchers have developed a structural analogue of mycolic acid, the essential membrane building block. This drug blocks key enzymes used in mycomembrane biosynthesis, significantly increasing the effectiveness of conventional antibiotics.
