Collismycin is a rare and unusual antibiotic belonging to the caerulomycin class, containing a core 2,2’-bispyridyl with an oxime substituent, produced by a strain of Streptomyces and discovered by researchers from Kirin, Japan in 1994. Collismycin was discovered as a potent inhibitor of glucocorticoid receptor binding. Collismycin has weak to moderate activity against bacteria, fungi and tumor cell lines. More recently, collismycin has been found to be a potent and selective neuroprotective agent against oxidative stress. Other recent publications have focused on the biosynthesis of collismycin as a route to the production of related analogues.
