A new antibiotic was found living inside the human nose

Researchers at the University of Tübingen in Germany discovered that Staphylococcus lugdunensis, a bacterium that lives naturally in some people's noses, produces a previously unknown antibiotic they named lugdunin, effective against major drug-resistant pathogens.

Lugdunin killed Staphylococcus aureus, including MRSA, in laboratory tests and in mice, and S. aureus did not readily develop resistance to it under repeated testing. Surveying human volunteers, the team found that people who naturally carried S. lugdunensis in their noses had a significantly lower rate of S. aureus colonization than people who did not.

Lugdunin is a non-ribosomally synthesized cyclic peptide, a rare structural class to find coming from human-associated bacteria rather than soil microbes or fungi. The mouse and lab results are promising, but lugdunin has not been tested as an approved drug in people, and turning a naturally occurring compound like this into a manufacturable medicine is a separate, much longer process.

The nose was already making its own antibiotic.