Virstatin

Content sourced from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

Virstatin is a small molecule that blocks ToxT, a regulatory protein cholera bacteria use to turn on the genes needed to cause illness. By inhibiting ToxT, Virstatin can reduce the disease-causing activity of cholera. It was first described in 2005 after researchers screened a library of chemicals and tested a hit in mice infected with cholera. Virstatin is an isoquinoline alkaloid and can be made in a simple two-step synthesis.