For the half past century antibiotics have been provided to patients to fight bacterial infections. However, the widespread use and misuse of antibiotics has bred microorganism that are resistant to current drugs like Vancomycin-resistant Enterococci (VRE). Vancomycin is still the preferred drug for treating a number of drug-resistant gram-positive bacterial infections, but recent increases in resistance to this drug have been a cause of growing concern. Vancomycin is used to treat a variety of complex skin and skin-structure infections. The most common species causing VRE infection are Enterococcus faecalis and Enterococcus faecium (Sheff 2003, 60). Both species have proven resistant to cephalosporins and amino-glycosides.
The growing resistance of bacteria to Vancomycin has encouraged researchers to look for new agents that will provide improved efficacy against enterococci resistant bacteria. One study in China has resulted in the discovery of a metal complex that appears to provide potent activities against VRE. The metal complex is [Pt[en](H[2]0)[2](2+) and was found to be approximately 720 times more potent than Vancomycin itself against VRE (Metal 2004, 251). According to Chinese researchers, the results ôsuggest that combining metal complexation and receptor/ligand interaction offers a useful method to construct multivalent inhibitorsö (Metal 2004, 251).
VRE was first reported in the U.S. in 1996, and since that time researchers have been searching for new agents to combat this resistant form of enterococci. The two species most inherently resistant to drugs now used against VRE have been found to be respondent to libezolid (Zyvox), (Sheff 2003, 60). Another new antibiotic that has recently received Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval is known as Daptomycin, a cyclic lipopeptide antibiotic that appears to provide rapid bactericidal action against gram-positive pathogens lik
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