ArticlePLoS pathogens2020
A symbiotic bacterium of shipworms produces a compound with broad spectrum anti-apicomplexan activity.
Article in PLoS pathogens, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 16 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
16 citing papers in PubMed, 34 citations in OpenAlex.
- Alkali Cation- and Borate-Binding States of Tartrolon Antibiotics.Journal of natural products · 2025Article
- Norditerpene Natural Products from Subterranean Fungi with Anti-Parasitic Activity.Microorganisms · 2025Article
- Tartrolon E rapidly blocks Toxoplasma gondii capacity to invade host cells.International journal for parasitology. Drugs and drug resistance · 2025Article
- Tartrolon E, a secondary metabolite of a marine symbiotic bacterium, is a potent inhibitor of asexual and sexualAntimicrobial agents and chemotherapy · 2024Article
- Tulathromycin and Diclazuril Lack Efficacy againstPathogens (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Article
- Impact of Marine Chemical Ecology Research on the Discovery and Development of New Pharmaceuticals.Marine drugs · 2023Review
- The Marine Compound Tartrolon E Targets the Asexual and Early Sexual Stages ofMicroorganisms · 2022Article
- A Conserved Biosynthetic Gene Cluster Is Regulated by Quorum Sensing in a Shipworm Symbiont.Applied and environmental microbiology · 2022Article
- High-Throughput Screening of a Marine Compound Library Identifies Anti-Marine drugs · 2022Article
- Beyond Soil-Dwelling Actinobacteria: Fantastic Antibiotics and Where to Find Them.Antibiotics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2022Review
- Shipworm symbiosis ecology-guided discovery of an antibiotic that kills colistin-resistant Acinetobacter.Cell chemical biology · 2021Article
- Boromycin Has Potent Anti-Antimicrobial agents and chemotherapy · 2021Article
- Development of an Indirect ELISA to Detect Equine Antibodies toPathogens (Basel, Switzerland) · 2021Article
- Imidocarb Dipropionate Lacks Efficacy againstPathogens (Basel, Switzerland) · 2020Article
- A conserved coccidian gene is involved in Toxoplasma sensitivity to the anti-apicomplexan compound, tartrolon E.International journal for parasitology. Drugs and drug resistance · 2020Article
- Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
21 authors at 10 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
Apicomplexan parasites cause severe disease in both humans and their domesticated animals. Since these parasites readily develop drug resistance, development of new, effective drugs to treat infection caused by these parasites is an ongoing challenge for the medical and veterinary communities. We hypothesized that invertebrate-bacterial symbioses might be a rich source of anti-apicomplexan compounds because invertebrates are susceptible to infections with gregarines, parasites that are ancestral to all apicomplexans. We chose to explore the therapeutic potential of shipworm symbiotic bacteria as they are bona fide symbionts, are easily grown in axenic culture and have genomes rich in secondary metabolite loci [1,2]. Two strains of the shipworm symbiotic bacterium, Teredinibacter turnerae, were screened for activity against Toxoplasma gondii and one strain, T7901, exhibited activity against intracellular stages of the parasite. Bioassay-guided fractionation identified tartrolon E (trtE) as the source of the activity. TrtE has an EC50 of 3 nM against T. gondii, acts directly on the parasite itself and kills the parasites after two hours of treatment. TrtE exhibits nanomolar to picomolar level activity against Cryptosporidium, Plasmodium, Babesia, Theileria, and Sarcocystis; parasites representing all branches of the apicomplexan phylogenetic tree. The compound also proved effective against Cryptosporidium parvum infection in neonatal mice, indicating that trtE may be a potential lead compound for preclinical development. Identification of a promising new compound after such limited screening strongly encourages further mining of invertebrate symbionts for new anti-parasitic therapeutics.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.