Computational Perspectives on Amoxicillin and Staphylococcus Aureus in Mirror Life

Abstract

The concept of mirror life is first introduced by Louis Pasteur, referring to biological systems composed of enantiomeric biomolecules. Although nowadays technologies are making a mirror life theoretically achievable, its potential risks remain uncertain. Here, an integrated multi-tier computational pipeline is employed to address the potential environmental threat posed by the hypothetical mirror-image of Staphylococcus aureus, a bacterium relevant to environmental and food safety. The findings suggest that amoxicillin, and perhaps other conventional antibiotics, should not be effective against their mirror targets. On the other hand, the enantiomeric amoxicillin may be a successful counteracting measure, although the risks for the biosphere remain unknown. Overall, this study highlights the need for further dedicated investigations in this field, while emphasizing in silico methods, in particular molecular modeling, as a versatile and effective first-line approach for analysis, free from biohazards and technical limitations of reagents supply.