Tedizolid

Despite renewed efforts to combat the spread of antimicrobial resistance, multidrug-resistant organisms, including gram-positive bacteria such as methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, remain a threat. Oxazolidinones represent a relatively new class of antibacterials inhibiting protein synthesis that is generally capable of overcoming resistance to other bacterial protein synthesis inhibitors.

Protein synthesis involves the action of ribosomes, multi-subunit complexes composed of both protein and ribosomal RNA (rRNA) substituents. Translocation along the length of a messenger RNA and concomitant protein synthesis involves the action of the A, P, and E sites of the peptidyltransferase centre (PTC), which accepts charged aminoacyl-tRNAs and catalyzes the formation of peptide bonds between them. The bacterial 70S ribosome comprises a small (30S) and a large (50S) subunit.

Early studies into the mechanism of action of oxazolidinone antibiotics suggested that they inhibit a step in the initiation of protein synthesis. However, this mechanism was inconsistent with mapped resistance mutations, and later studies involving cross-linking and direct structural determination of the binding site revealed that oxazolidinones, including both linezolid and tedizolid, bind in the A site of the PTC by interacting with the 23S rRNA component. The structural studies also revealed that oxazolidinone binding alters the conformation of a conserved nucleotide in the 23S rRNA (U2585 in Escherichia coli), which renders the PTC non-productive for peptide bond formation. Hence, tedizolid exerts its effect through inhibiting bacterial protein synthesis.