Teixobactin_Dosage, benefits & legal status
A decade-long lesson in what 'no resistance detected' actually means.
Common vial size is what vendors typically sell, not a recommendation. Enter your own vial in the calculator.
What is Teixobactin?
Plain language first. The technical label stays, but it never stands alone.Overview
This is the antibiotic that made headlines in 2015 because researchers could not breed bacteria resistant to it. That finding was real and narrow: in those experiments, with those two organisms, no resistant mutants appeared. Ten years later the picture has changed. A 2025 study evolved teixobactin-resistant staph in the laboratory, and the resistant bacteria turned out to be resistant to other drugs as well, including vancomycin and daptomycin, while staying able to cause disease. Teixobactin has still never been given to a person, and the reasons are chemical rather than regulatory.
Teixobactin is an antibacterial depsipeptide of eleven residues, produced by a previously uncultured beta-proteobacterium named Eleftheria terrae and recovered using the iChip, a device that grows soil organisms in place rather than on a plate. It is assembled by nonribosomal peptide synthetase enzymes rather than by a ribosome, contains four D-amino acids and an N-methyl-D-phenylalanine at one end, and closes into a four-residue macrolactone ring where the side-chain hydroxyl of D-threonine 8 esterifies the carboxyl of isoleucine 11. Position 10 is L-allo-enduracididine, a cyclic guanidine amino acid so rare it is not sold commercially. It kills Gram-positive bacteria by binding and sequestering the cell wall precursors lipid II and lipid III rather than by inhibiting an enzyme.
What it's used for
Nothing. It is a laboratory antibiotic that has never entered human trials in the decade since its discovery. Material sold for research is often not even the natural molecule.
How does Teixobactin work?
What it does in the body, and where.Most antibiotics block an enzyme, and an enzyme can be altered by a point mutation. Teixobactin binds the building material instead, and that difference is the reason the original authors expected resistance to be slow. It turned out to slow resistance rather than prevent it.
- 01Binding the brick, not the bricklayerLipid II and lipid III are precursors a bacterium uses to build its cell wall. Teixobactin binds and sequesters them stoichiometrically. A bacterium cannot mutate its way out of this by changing a protein, because the target is not a protein; it would have to change the building block itself.
- 02The 2022 revisionA second Nature paper in 2022 showed the picture is more than wall building. The enduracididine headgroup binds one lipid II and the molecule's other end binds a second. That pairing drives the peptides into beta sheets that assemble into fibers on the membrane surface and thin it. The authors called it a two-pronged attack on the cell envelope, and still read the mechanism as an explanation for the lack of detectable resistance.
- 03Why it is still not a medicineThree chemical problems, none of them solved. The rare residue at position 10 makes synthesis hard. Across analogs there is a negative relationship between how soluble a version is and how well it kills, so solubility fixes tend to cost potency, a tension a 2026 review calls a potency-formulation paradox. The aggregation that gives it strength is also what makes it hard to formulate. It also does nothing to Gram-negative bacteria, whose outer membrane keeps it out.
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.
What the 2015 paper actually claimed
Research only- Lab studyThe title says 'without detectable resistance' and the finding behind it is specific: no resistant mutants of Staphylococcus aureus or Mycobacterium tuberculosis could be obtained under the conditions tested.
- Lab studyThe discovery method was arguably the bigger result. The iChip grows soil bacteria in their own environment, and that made a previously uncultured organism available. Eleftheria terrae had not been cultured before.
- Lab studyActivity was against Gram-positive organisms. Gram-negative bacteria were not susceptible, with minimum inhibitory concentrations above 32 micrograms per milliliter reported for Pseudomonas and Klebsiella.
How the resistance claim has changed
Research only- Lab studyIn 2025, laboratory evolution produced teixobactin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus. The resistant bacteria carried clinically relevant multidrug resistance, stayed virulent in an invertebrate infection model, and showed cross-resistance that reached vancomycin and daptomycin, both of which have their own pages on this site.
- Lab studyThat paper also found mutations conferring resistance to these candidate antibiotics already circulating in natural bacterial populations, so resistance need not evolve from scratch.
- Lab studyTolerance is a separate thing from resistance, and it is documented in Enterococcus faecalis, where the organism survives concentrations that inhibit it. Prolonged exposure has also been reported to raise tolerance and cross-tolerance to other antibiotics.
- ReviewA 2026 ten-year review describes the original claim as qualified, with the literature split between a high barrier to resistance and concern about rapid adaptation and cross-resistance. Any page claiming no resistance to teixobactin has ever been found is out of date.
What is sold under this name
Research only- No dataResearch suppliers list teixobactin in milligram quantities, labeled for research use and not for human use.
- No dataThe residue at position 10, L-allo-enduracididine, is not commercially available, and much material offered for research is a substitute analog with arginine in its place rather than the natural product. A certificate naming teixobactin does not establish which molecule is in the vial.
- No dataNo tracked seller in this site's price data lists it at all, so there is no price history to show.
The 2015 title is the problem. 'Without detectable resistance' described two organisms under specific laboratory conditions, and it gets repeated as though resistance to teixobactin were impossible. It is not: in 2025 laboratory evolution produced resistant Staphylococcus aureus that was also multidrug resistant and still virulent, with cross-resistance reaching vancomycin and daptomycin. The second error is calling it a new antibiotic as though it were available. It has never been given to a human in a registered trial in the decade since publication, and the obstacles are chemical: one residue cannot be bought, solubility and potency pull against each other across analogs, and Gram-negative bacteria are unaffected. The third error matters most to anyone buying it. Because that one residue is unavailable, a large share of research-grade teixobactin is an arginine-substituted analog rather than the natural molecule, so results obtained with it are not necessarily results about teixobactin.
The published record
Papers and trials about Teixobactin
Searched: teixobactin.
Left out: Eleftheria terrae (the source organism, with its own microbiology literature); lipid II (the target, shared with vancomycin, nisin and others); iChip (the cultivation method, with a separate literature about soil microbiology); enduracididine (a single residue, which pulls in synthetic chemistry papers about the amino acid itself); antimicrobial peptide (a class term covering most of this site's immune-support entries).
28 papers tagged human · 14 not reviews or lab · 0 clinical trial publications
Furthest stage reached: No clinical trial on record
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 Teixobactin
How much, and do you cycle it?
The range, and whether you take breaks.No human dose exists, not applicable. Not applicable No range
It is not administered to people, so no schedule exists.
Not establishedNo figure
No human pharmacokinetic study exists, because the molecule has never been given to a person. Figures from mouse infection models do not convert into a human half-life and none is quoted here.
You can compare this against the whole library to see where it sits.
What does it cost?
Typical dose and cost, in plain numbers.Teixobactin is not injected in the forms covered here
Route: not taken as a treatment. No human dose exists and none has ever been proposed in a trial. Published figures are minimum inhibitory concentrations in culture and doses in mouse infection models, neither of which converts into a human dose. Any figure offered as a teixobactin dose would be invented.
How do you store it?
Before mixing, and after.Nothing to store: it is not taken as a treatment.
Teixobactin is not used as a medicine or a supplement, so no home storage question arises. Laboratory suppliers ship research material frozen and state their own handling conditions on the certificate that comes with it.
What are the side effects and cautions?
Known cautions and warnings for this compound.Who should avoid it
- Any human use: there is no human dose, no formulation, no sterile product and no clinical data
- Treating a research powder as an antibiotic: an untested antibacterial is not a treatment for an infection, and an infection treated wrongly gets worse
- Assuming a sample is the real molecule: the rare residue at position 10 is not commercially available, so much research-grade material is a substitute analog
Stop and get help
- Not applicable. It is not taken
Common effects
- Unknown in people. Nothing has been administered and nothing has been measured
Where this page says nothing is established, that means nobody has studied it, not that a compound is safe.
Is Teixobactin approved?
And where the numbers on this page come from.No. Teixobactin is not approved for any use, anywhere. It is sold labeled for laboratory research only, and there is no legal route to buy it for human use.
- Approval statusResearch only
- RouteNot taken as a treatment
- Checked25 October 2026
- DoseNo dose has been established in people.
- Vial sizeFrom what vendors typically list; not a recommendation.
- Sources
What has happened recently
Not approved anywhere and never tested in humans. Described in Nature on January 7, 2015, with a correction on January 21 and an erratum on February 25 of that year. Supplier and database records give CAS 1613225-53-8. We could not confirm an FDA substance record: the registry served a challenge page rather than a record, so no UNII is quoted here. No International Nonproprietary Name was found. On registered trials, the European Union Clinical Trials Register returns no matching trials, and pipeline databases list the highest global development status as preclinical with Northeastern University as originator and NovoBiotic Pharmaceuticals involved. We are deliberately not claiming that a ClinicalTrials.gov search returns nothing, because that site refused our search queries on every path we tried, so the absence there is unconfirmed rather than verified.
You can compare this against the whole library, or read how to check a seller.
What else is like Teixobactin?
Others in Immune support, side by side.If you're weighing Teixobactin, it's worth reading Thymopentin (TP-5), Tuftsin, and Vancomycin (Vancocin) in the same class.
A decade-long lesson in what 'no resistance detected' actually means.
- Dose
- No human dose exists
- How often
- Not applicable
Five amino acids that carry the whole activity of a thymus hormone.
- Dose
- 50 mg per dose
- How often
- 3x per week
A four-amino-acid immune peptide from the 1970s, and the parent of Selank.
- Dose
- Research only
- How often
- Not established
The clearest case on this site of something called a peptide that is not one in the sense readers here mean.
- Dose
- Set by the product label, the infection and kidney function
- How often
- Several times a day, for a defined course
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
- Ling and colleagues, Nature(2015)The discovery paper, titled 'A new antibiotic kills pathogens without detectable resistance'. Volume 517, issue 7535, pages 455 to 459, published online January 7, 2015 and in print January 22, with a typographical correction on January 21 and an erratum on February 25. Twenty-one authors, Kim Lewis last. Reports teixobactin from a previously uncultured beta-proteobacterium, Eleftheria terrae, grown using the iChip; activity against Gram-positive pathogens including Staphylococcus aureus and Mycobacterium tuberculosis; and binding of the cell wall precursors lipid II and lipid III. The resistance finding is stated narrowly: no mutants of Staphylococcus aureus or Mycobacterium tuberculosis resistant to teixobactin were obtained.
- Shukla and colleagues, Nature(2022)Teixobactin kills bacteria by a two-pronged attack on the cell envelope. Volume 608, pages 390 to 396, published online August 3, 2022. Twenty-six authors. Shows the C-terminal headgroup binding the pyrophosphate-sugar of one lipid II and the N-terminus binding the pyrophosphate of a second, driving beta-sheet formation and a supramolecular fibrillar structure that disrupts and thins the membrane. Argues that binding a conserved target absent from eukaryotes may explain the lack of detectable resistance, a reading that predates the 2025 resistance work below.
- Martins and colleagues, Science Translational Medicine(2025)Antibiotic candidates for Gram-positive bacterial infections induce multidrug resistance. Volume 17, issue 780, article eadl2103, published January 8, 2025. Twenty authors. Laboratory evolution against unapproved Gram-positive candidates produced resistance readily in Staphylococcus aureus with one exception, and cross-resistance reached drugs in clinical use including vancomycin and daptomycin as well as teixobactin. Teixobactin-resistant bacteria showed clinically relevant multidrug resistance and remained virulent in an invertebrate infection model, and mutations conferring resistance to these candidates were already present in natural bacterial populations. The full text is paywalled, so no fold-change or specific mutation is quoted here.
Beyond these, 125 records are indexed. Browse the records