Bis-catecholate siderophore carries ampicillin into resistant Pseudomonas
- A Trojan-horse design hijacks bacterial iron uptake to move a β-lactam payload across the Gram-negative outer membrane.
- Ampicillin was conjugated to mono-catecholate, bis-catecholate and catecholate–hydroxamate siderophores and the series compared.
- The bis-catecholate conjugate is reported as the selective one, extending ampicillin's reach to multidrug-resistant P. aeruginosa.
💡 Points
Getting an old penicillin to work on Pseudomonas by changing only the delivery vector is a clean demonstration of the siderophore approach. Linker stability in serum and the chance that resistant strains simply down-regulate the uptake receptors are the things I'd check next.