Mutacin 1140 is a

bacteriocin Bacteriocins are proteinaceous or peptide, peptidic toxins produced by bacteria to inhibit the growth of similar or closely related bacterial strain(s). They are similar to yeast and paramecium killing factors, and are structurally, functionally ...

produced by ''

Streptococcus mutans ''Streptococcus mutans'' is a Facultative anaerobic organism, facultatively anaerobic, gram-positive coccus (round bacteria, bacterium) commonly found in the human oral cavity and is a significant contributor to dental caries, tooth decay. The m ...

''. It has activity against a broad spectrum of

Gram-positive In bacteriology, gram-positive bacteria are bacteria that give a positive result in the Gram stain test, which is traditionally used to quickly classify bacteria into two broad categories according to their type of cell wall. The Gram stain is ...

bacteria. It is a member of the class of compounds known as

lantibiotics Lantibiotics are a class of polycyclic peptide antibiotics that contain the characteristic thioether amino acids lanthionine or methyllanthionine, as well as the Saturated and unsaturated compounds, unsaturated amino acids dehydroalanine, and 2-A ...

. Mutacin 1140 belongs to the epidermin subset of type Al lantibiotics. Molecules belonging to this family bind to lipid II which is a precursor to bacterial cell wall synthesis. While the effects mutacin 1140 has against gram-positive bacteria are known, it remains difficult to study due to it demonstrating poor

pharmacokinetics Pharmacokinetics (from Ancient Greek ''pharmakon'' "drug" and ''kinetikos'' "moving, putting in motion"; see chemical kinetics), sometimes abbreviated as PK, is a branch of pharmacology dedicated to describing how the body affects a specific su ...

. Besides the poor pharmacokinetics, it is easily vulnerable to proteolytic degradation by interfering with the protein's peptide bonds.

References

Lantibiotics Bacteriocins {{biochemistry-stub