Perimycin is polyene

Polyene

Polyenes are poly-unsaturated organic compounds that contain one or more sequences of alternating double and single carbon-carbon bonds. These double carbon-carbon bonds interact in a process known as conjugation, which results in an overall lower energy state of the molecule.Organic compounds with...

 antibiotic

Antibiotic

An antibacterial is a compound or substance that kills or slows down the growth of bacteria.The term is often used synonymously with the term antibiotic; today, however, with increased knowledge of the causative agents of various infectious diseases, antibiotic has come to denote a broader range of...

 produced by Streptomyces

Streptomyces

Streptomyces is the largest genus of Actinobacteria and the type genus of the family Streptomycetaceae. Over 500 species of Streptomyces bacteria have been described. As with the other Actinobacteria, streptomycetes are gram-positive, and have genomes with high guanine and cytosine content...

 coelicolor var. aminophilus. The compound exhibits antifungal

Antifungal

* Antifungal medication, a medication used to treat fungal infection s such as athlete's foot , ringworm, candidiasis, etc.* Antifungal protein, a protein family* an adjective referring to a fungicide compound...

 properties.

Composition

Perimycin is produced naturally as a mixture of three types: A, B and C, with type A a being the major component. All types consist of a polyketide

Polyketide

Polyketides are secondary metabolites from bacteria, fungi, plants, and animals. Polyketides are usually biosynthesized through the decarboxylative condensation of malonyl-CoA derived extender units in a similar process to fatty acid synthesis...

 core with a perosamine

Perosamine

Perosamine is a mannose-derived 4-aminodeoxysugar produced by some bacteria.-Biological role:N-acetyl-perosamine is found in the O-antigen of Gram-negative bacteria such as Vibrio cholarae O1, E. coli O157:H7 and Caulobacter crescentus CB15...

 sugar moiety. The variations occur at the end of the core opposite the perosamine moiety. Perimycin A has an aromatic group in this position, whereas the identities of the analogous groups in the other perimycin types are currently undetermined.

Usage

Polyene antibiotics in general are often toxic to humans and have poor bioavailability

Bioavailability

In pharmacology, bioavailability is a subcategory of absorption and is used to describe the fraction of an administered dose of unchanged drug that reaches the systemic circulation, one of the principal pharmacokinetic properties of drugs. By definition, when a medication is administered...

. Thus, with the notable exception of amphotericin B

Amphotericin B

Amphotericin B is a polyene antifungal drug, often used intravenously for systemic fungal infections...

, they are often not used clinically. Perimycin has been shown to be an effective antifungal compound, but is not widely used in clinical settings.