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Daptomycin is a branched cyclic anionic lipopeptide antibiotic that was discovered in the early 1980s but got the FDA approval only in 2003. This novel pharmaceutical molecule has demonstrated great in vitro activity against a wide range of aerobic and anaerobic gram-positive bacteria, including methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus and vancomycin-resistant enterococci. Daptomycin has a unique mechanism of action, not completely understood, involving a calcium-dependent dissipation of membrane potential leading to the release of intracellular ions from the cell and bacteria death. This antibiotic has been already approved for the treatment of patients with complicated skin and skin structure infections, right-sided endocarditis and bacteraemia. Local delivery of daptomycin is an emerging area of study. Current in vitro studies show that daptomycin can be eluted from polymethylmethacrylate, calcium sulfate and chitosan films. Emerging cases of resistance to daptomycin have been reported, commonly occurring by spontaneous mutations, and have been associated with prolonged use, osteomyelitis, acute myeloid leukemia and leucocyte adhesion deficiency syndrome. This review examines the most recent literature evidences on daptomycin molecular structure, mechanism of action, bacterial spectrum, clinical uses, local delivery, toxicity and resistance.

The interaction between Cu(II) and pectin extracted from citrus fruit was studied in KNO30.10 mol dm−3at 25 °C and pH 5.5, using ion selective electrode potentiometry and voltammetry, namely differential pulse polarography and square‐wave voltammetry. Although many independent variables may affect Cu(II)‐polymer interactions such as charge density, polymer concentration and copper to polymer concentration ratio, a good fitting was observed for the model with ML and ML2complex species, when M:L total concentration (mol dm−3) ratio varies from 0.2 to 2.7 and the ligand concentration is in the range (0.2 to 1) g dm−3, i.e., (0.4 to 2)×10−3mol COO−dm−3. The complex parameters found in these conditions were log βCuL=3.5±0.1 and log βCuL2=8.0±0.2. For lower total ligand and total metal ion concentrations, used in voltammetry, the interaction Cu(II)‐pectin is affected by a cooperative mode (increase of metal ion‐ligand affinity) when the total metal ion concentration increases and by an anti‐cooperative mode when the total ligand concentration increases, possibly due to different conformations of the polymer.