Dynobactin A_Dosage, benefits & legal status
Also known as dynobactin, dynobactin-A, DynA peptide
An experimental peptide antibiotic against Gram-negative bacteria, found by computer and tested only in mice.
Common vial size is what vendors typically sell, not a recommendation. Enter your own vial in the calculator.
What is Dynobactin A?
Plain language first. The technical label stays, but it never stands alone.Overview
A new class of antibiotic against the hardest bacteria to treat, including carbapenem-resistant strains, that saved mice from sepsis. It has never been given to a person, no company has a trial planned, and no supplier sells it.
Dynobactin A is a ten-residue peptide antibiotic made by the bacterium Photorhabdus australis, discovered in 2022 by Kim Lewis's group at Northeastern University by searching bacterial genomes for a particular enzyme signature. It jams BamA, the machine that builds the outer wall of Gram-negative bacteria.
What it's used for
Nothing yet, outside the laboratory. A preclinical antibiotic lead for Gram-negative infections such as resistant E. coli, Klebsiella and Acinetobacter.
How does Dynobactin A work?
What it does in the body, and where.Dynobactin A plugs BamA, the protein that Gram-negative bacteria use to build their outer membrane. No outer membrane, no bacterium.
- 01Binds the BamA lateral gateIt sits on the gate of BamA's barrel and pushes three residues into the barrel itself, closing the machine that threads new proteins into the outer membrane.
- 02A different grip from darobactinDarobactin, the first BamA-targeting peptide from the same lab, is a seven-residue peptide with fused rings and an ether link. Dynobactin has ten residues and two unfused rings held by a carbon-carbon and a carbon-nitrogen bond, and binds BamA differently at the molecular level.
- 03Why it mattersGram-negative bacteria shrug off most antibiotics because of that outer membrane. A drug that stops the membrane being built works where others cannot reach. That is why resistant strains were still susceptible in the lab.
A schematic of the compound's mechanism, not a diagnostic image.
What else is it used for?
Each group carries its own evidence level.Approved means regulators have cleared it for that purpose. Investigational means it is in trials. Early research means it is being studied and is not established.
Gram-negative infection
Research only- Lab studyActive in the laboratory against Gram-negative bacteria including drug-resistant strains, by stopping BamA from building the outer membrane.
- Animal studyIn a mouse model of systemic E. coli infection, treated mice survived. The dose, route and survival percentages are in the paywalled paper and were not retrieved for this page.
- No dataNo human has received it. No trial exists, no dose has been proposed, and it is absent from the WHO's 2025 pipeline review.
Dynobactin A has no community footprint, so the main error to pre-empt is structural: it has no ether crosslink. The ether belongs to darobactin, its better-known sibling. Dynobactin's two rings are a carbon-carbon bond (Trp1 to Asn4) and a carbon-nitrogen bond (His6 to Tyr8), unfused. Press headlines calling it a "silver bullet antibiotic" invite the reading that it is a medicine; it is a laboratory lead with one mouse experiment behind it, and nobody sells it.
The published record
Papers and trials about Dynobactin A
Counted from Europe PMC indexing, not read by a person; a human tag can land on reviews, commentary or lab papers; clinical trial publications is the narrower count.
At a glance
Four things to know about Dynobactin A
How much, and do you cycle it?
The range, and whether you take breaks.No human dose; mouse dose not retrieved, not established. No established pattern No range
No human study exists. Antibiotics are given as a course, not cycled, and no course has been defined for this one.
Nothing publishedNo figure
No pharmacokinetic figure in any species could be retrieved. Mouse PK may sit in the paywalled discovery paper; nothing exists for humans because no human has received it.
You can compare this against the whole library to see where it sits.
How do I dose and price it?
Enter your vial and your dose. Pick a mix. We show the draw and the cost.The vial holds a fixed amount of drug. Adding more water does not make more drug, it just spreads it thinner, so you draw a bigger number on the syringe for the same dose.
Choose your mix
Measuring the water1 mL = one full 100-unit syringe.
How do you store it?
Before mixing, and after.Dry powder in the freezer or fridge. Once mixed, fridge, and use within about a month.
Unmixed lyophilized Dynobactin A keeps for a long time cold. Once you add water the clock starts: most reconstituted vials hold up for roughly 28 to 30 days at fridge temperature. Keep it out of light, and do not freeze it after mixing.
What are the side effects and cautions?
Known cautions and warnings for this compound.Solubility, computed: 30% charged residues, 30% hydrophobic. Water usually sufficient.
A first-pass rule from peptide manufacturers' guidance. It does not account for disulfide bridges, salt form or how the powder was dried, and it predicts what should be easy rather than what will happen in your vial.
Who should avoid it
- Everyone, in the sense that no human has taken it and nobody sells it
- Pregnancy or breastfeeding
Stop and get help
- Not applicable. There is no product and no route by which anyone could take it
Common effects
- Unknown. No human has received it
- No cytotoxicity, haemolysis or toxicology figures could be retrieved from the paywalled discovery paper
Where this page says nothing is established, that means nobody has studied it, not that a compound is safe.
Is Dynobactin A approved?
And where the numbers on this page come from.No. Dynobactin A is not approved for any use, anywhere. It is sold labelled for laboratory research only, and there is no legal route to buy it for human use.
- Approval statusResearch only
- RouteNot established in people (systemic in mice)
- Checked10 October 2026
- DoseFrom research and community reports. No regulator has reviewed this dose.
- Vial sizeFrom what vendors typically list; not a recommendation.
- SourcesMiller RD, Iinishi A, Modaresi SM, Yoo BK et al., Nature Microbiology 2022, computational identification of a systemic antibiotic for Gram-negative bacteriaRCSB PDB 7T3H, MicroED structure of dynobactin A at 1.05 angstromsRCSB PDB 7R1V, E. coli BamA barrel in complex with dynobactin AUniProt A0A1C0U7H2, dynobactin A precursor from Photorhabdus australisYoo BK, Miller R, Bowman S, Rees D, Lewis K, Acta Crystallographica A 2023 (conference abstract)Schneider F et al., Journal of the American Chemical Society 2024, total synthesis of dynobactin ANguyen BX et al., Journal of the American Chemical Society 2024, radical-mediated crosslinking in dynobactin biosynthesisWHO, Analysis of antibacterial agents in clinical and preclinical development, 2025Biozentrum, University of Basel, press release (4 Oct 2022)Donum Therapeutics, pipeline statement
What has happened recently
Not approved anywhere and not in any clinical trial. It does not appear in the WHO's 2025 review of antibacterial agents in clinical and preclinical development. One small company, Donum Therapeutics, lists natural variants of darobactin and dynobactin at the lead-optimisation stage. Four years after publication the compound has no human exposure, no supplier and no community discussion anywhere.
You can compare this against the whole library, or read how to check a seller.
What else is like Dynobactin A?
Others in Immune support, side by side.If you're weighing Dynobactin A, it's worth reading Imunofan, P140 (forigerimod), and Splenopentin in the same class.
An experimental peptide antibiotic against Gram-negative bacteria, found by computer and tested only in mice.
- Dose
- No human dose; mouse dose not retrieved
- How often
- Not established
A Russian rework of thymopentin, with one amino acid added at each end.
- Dose
- 50 mcg per dose
- How often
- Every other day, in courses
An experimental lupus peptide whose pivotal trial missed its endpoint in 2018.
- Dose
- 200 mcg every 4 weeks (every trial to date)
- How often
- Every 4 weeks
A five-amino-acid spleen peptide, sold on an evidence base almost nobody has read.
- Dose
- Research only
- How often
- Not established
Guides for this compound
- How to Reconstitute a Peptide
Mix peptide powder with bacteriostatic water, step by step.
- How to Read an Insulin Syringe
Read the units, convert to millilitres, and draw the exact dose.
- mcg vs mg: The Peptide Dosing Mistake to Avoid
Your vial says mg and your protocol says mcg. Here is the conversion and how to check it.
- How to Read a Peptide COA
What the purity number does and does not tell you, and how to spot an edited report.
- How to Vet a Peptide Vendor
Independent COAs, HPLC purity, and the red flags that mean walk away.
Sources
- Miller RD, Iinishi A, Modaresi SM, Yoo BK et al., Nature Microbiology 2022, computational identification of a systemic antibiotic for Gram-negative bacteria(2022)Discovery paper. Dynobactin A, from Photorhabdus australis, binds the BamA lateral gate and protrudes into the barrel lumen, is active against Gram-negative pathogens including drug-resistant strains, and showed efficacy in a mouse systemic E. coli infection. Figures for MICs, mouse dose and toxicity are in the paywalled full text.
- RCSB PDB 7T3H, MicroED structure of dynobactin A at 1.05 angstroms(2022)Ten-residue sequence Trp-Asn-Ser-Asn-Val-His-Ser-Tyr-Arg-Phe.
- RCSB PDB 7R1V, E. coli BamA barrel in complex with dynobactin A(2022)X-ray structure at 2.5 angstroms of the peptide bound to BamA.
- UniProt A0A1C0U7H2, dynobactin A precursor from Photorhabdus australis(2026)59-residue precursor; the mature peptide is residues 50 to 59, WNSNVHSYRF.
- Yoo BK, Miller R, Bowman S, Rees D, Lewis K, Acta Crystallographica A 2023 (conference abstract)(2023)Describes the two crosslinks: a carbon-carbon bond from Trp1 to Asn4 and a carbon-nitrogen bond from His6 to Tyr8, with the two rings unfused and unlinked, in contrast to darobactin's fused rings.
- Schneider F et al., Journal of the American Chemical Society 2024, total synthesis of dynobactin A(2024)First total synthesis, 14 steps in the longest linear sequence, intended to make analogue chemistry practical.
- Nguyen BX et al., Journal of the American Chemical Society 2024, radical-mediated crosslinking in dynobactin biosynthesis(2024)How the DynA enzyme installs the two crosslinks.
- WHO, Analysis of antibacterial agents in clinical and preclinical development, 2025(2025)Dynobactin does not appear in the clinical or preclinical pipeline review.
- Biozentrum, University of Basel, press release (4 Oct 2022)(2022)Mice with life-threatening sepsis from resistant bacteria survived after treatment; the compound binds BamA differently from darobactin.
- Donum Therapeutics, pipeline statement(2026)Natural variants of darobactin and dynobactin at the lead-optimisation stage.
Beyond these, 4 records are indexed. Browse the records