An international team led by scientists from the University of Liverpool in the UK has developed a new type of antibiotic called Novltex. Tests have shown that the antibiotic exhibits sustained inhibition against multiple deadly superbugs, marking significant progress in efforts to combat antibiotic resistance. The relevant results were published in the latest issue of the Journal of Medicinal Chemistry. Antibiotic resistance is listed as one of the top ten health threats facing humanity, causing nearly 5 million deaths annually. The World Health Organization has released a list of "priority pathogens" in urgent need of new antibiotics, including methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus and Enterococcus faecalis. Novltex exhibits potent and rapid killing effects on both types of bacteria. Unlike traditional antibiotics, Novltex targets lipid II. Lipids II are an important component of bacterial cell walls and are not easily mutated. This means that Novltex can provide long-lasting resistance protection and is expected to address a major challenge in modern medicine. The team had previously developed a simplified synthetic version of Tesla. Taisibatin is a cyclic peptide antibiotic isolated from soil bacteria, which has significant activity against various drug-resistant bacteria. On this basis, they constructed and tested a synthetic Tesla library, optimizing multiple key performance indicators. In the latest research, inspired by tesbactin and another antibiotic, clostridin, the team has developed a new antibiotic, Novltex. Novltex avoids the use of expensive raw materials and can be used to construct a large number of candidate molecules for optimization, targeting lipid II that is not easily mutated. The combination of high efficiency, durability, and mass production capability has made Novltex one of the most promising antibiotic candidate drugs in decades. The test results show that Novltex has sustained antibacterial ability and is still effective at low doses, with better efficacy than various existing antibiotics such as vancomycin and daptomycin. It is non-toxic to human cells and has a synthesis efficiency 30 times higher than natural products. (New Society)