Etamycin as a Novel Mycobacterium abscessus Inhibitor

Abstract

The increase in drug-resistant <i>Mycobacterium abscessus</i>, which has become resistant to existing standard-of-care agents, is a major concern, and new antibacterial agents are strongly needed. In this study, we introduced etamycin that showed an excellent activity against <i>M. abscessus</i>. We found that etamycin significantly inhibited the growth of <i>M. abscessus</i> wild-type strain, three subspecies, and clinical isolates in vitro and inhibited the growth of <i>M. abscessus</i> that resides in macrophages without cytotoxicity. Furthermore, the in vivo efficacy of etamycin in the zebrafish (<i>Danio rerio</i>) infection model was greater than that of clarithromycin, which is recommended as the core agent for treating <i>M. abscessus</i> infections. Thus, we concluded that etamycin is a potential anti-<i>M. abscessus</i> candidate for further development as a clinical drug candidate.