Identification and evaluation of helvolic acid as an antibacterial compound against Neisseria gonorrhoeae

Neisseria gonorrhoeae infection causes significant morbidity and can have serious long term impacts on reproductive and neonatal health. Global rates of N. gonorrhoeae infection have been increasing steadily over the past 20 years and rates of resistance to key antibiotics have also continued to increase. Given the situation, the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) identified drug-resistant N. gonorrhoeae as an urgent threat to public health. In this study, we aimed to discover antibacterial compounds against N. gonorrhoeae from an in-house fungal culture broth library. After the screening program, we identified helvolic acid (1), produced by Aspergillus unilateralis FKI-6908 strain, as a target antibacterial compound. Compound 1 demonstrated great antibacterial activity even against drug-resistant N. gonorrhoeae clinical isolate strains, suggesting its potential for treatment of N. gonorrhoeae infections.