Bano Naushin
Department of Bioengineering, Integral University, Lucknow, 226026, India.
Recent Pat Biotechnol. 2025;19(2):85-98. doi: 10.2174/0118722083300181240429072502.
Antibiotics are considered "wonder drugs" due to the fact that they are the most extensively utilised medication in the world. They are used to cure a broad spectrum of diseases and lethal infections. A variety of bacteria and fungi produce antibiotics as a result of secondary metabolism; however, their production is dominated by a special class of bacteria, namely Actinobacteria. Actinobacteria are gram-positive bacteria with high G+C content and unparalleled antibiotic-producing ability. They produce numerous polyenes, tetracyclines, β-lactams, macrolides, and peptides. Actinobacteria are ubiquitous in nature and are isolated from various sources, such as marine and terrestrial endophytes of plants and air. They are studied for their relative antibiotic-producing ability along with the mechanism that the antibiotics follow to annihilate the pathogenic agents that include bacteria, fungi, protozoans, helminths, etc. Actinobacteria isolated from endophytes of medicinal plants have amassed significant attention as they interfere with the metabolism of medicinal plants and acquire enormous benefits from it in the form of conspicuous novel antibiotic-producing ability. Actinobacteria is not only an antibiotic but also a rich source of anticancer compounds that are widely used owing to its remarkable tumorigenic potential. Today, amongst Actinobacteria, class Streptomyces subjugates the area of antibiotic production, producing 70% of all known antibiotics. The uniqueness of bioactive Actinobacteria has turned the attention of scientists worldwide in order to explore its potentiality as effective "micronanofactories". This study provides a brief overview of the production of antibiotics from Actinobacteria inhabiting patent environments and the methods involved in the screening of antibiotics.
抗生素被视为“神奇药物”，因为它们是世界上使用最广泛的药物。它们用于治疗广泛的疾病和致命感染。多种细菌和真菌通过次级代谢产生抗生素；然而，它们的产生主要由一类特殊的细菌主导，即放线菌。放线菌是革兰氏阳性菌，具有高G+C含量和无与伦比的抗生素生产能力。它们产生众多的多烯类、四环素类、β-内酰胺类、大环内酯类和肽类。放线菌在自然界中无处不在，可从各种来源分离得到，如植物的海洋和陆地内生菌以及空气。人们研究它们相对的抗生素生产能力以及抗生素消灭包括细菌、真菌、原生动物、蠕虫等病原体所遵循的机制。从药用植物内生菌中分离出的放线菌引起了极大关注，因为它们干扰药用植物的代谢并从中获得巨大益处，表现为显著的新型抗生素生产能力。放线菌不仅是抗生素的来源，也是抗癌化合物的丰富来源，因其显著的致瘤潜力而被广泛使用。如今，在放线菌中，链霉菌属在抗生素生产领域占据主导地位，生产了所有已知抗生素的70%。具有生物活性的放线菌的独特性吸引了全世界科学家的关注，以探索其作为有效的“微纳工厂”的潜力。本研究简要概述了栖息于专利环境中的放线菌产生抗生素的情况以及抗生素筛选所涉及的方法。
