Current Medicinal Chemistry - Volume 22, Issue 14, 2015

Despite the enormous progress that has been made in the last few decades in the field of drug design as well as virulence of pathogenic bacteria, the gradual spread of drug resistance can be observed. Only two new classes of antibiotics have been brought to medicine in the last 30 years. The need for novel antibacterial drugs is especially pressing when considering infections caused by multidrug-resistant (MDR) pathogens suc Read More

Antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) are an heterogeneous group of small amino acidic molecules produced by the innate immune system of a variety of organisms encompassing all orders of life from eukaryotes to amphibians, insects and plants. Numerous AMPs have been isolated from natural sources and many others have been de novo designed and synthetically produced. AMPs have antimicrobial activity in the micromolar r Read More

The ability to resist the effect of a wide range of antibiotics makes methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) a leading global human pathogen. A key determinant of resistance to β-lactam antibiotics in this organism is penicillin-binding protein 2a (PBP2a), an enzyme that catalyzes the crosslinking reaction between two adjacent peptide stems during the peptidoglycan biosynthesis. The recently published crystal stru Read More

UDP-glucose is an essential metabolite for a variety of processes in the cell physiology in all organisms. In prokaryotes, it is involved in the synthesis of trehalose, an osmoprotectant, in galactose utilization via the Leloir pathway and it plays a key role in the synthesis of the components of the bacterial envelope, particularly the lipopolysaccharide and the capsule, which represent necessary virulence factors of many bacterial p Read More

Dormancy in mycobacteria is defined as a stable but reversible non-replicating state in response to stresses. In Mycobacterium tuberculosis, an important human pathogen, this state is responsible for latent Tuberculosis. The current chemotherapy to defeat Tuberculosis while effective in killing growing tubercle bacilli is largely ineffective in killing dormant bacilli. For this reason there is a recent interest to develop new drug Read More

Methods of human bacterial pathogen identification need to be fast, reliable, inexpensive, and time efficient. These requirements may be met by vibrational spectroscopic techniques. The method that is most often used for bacterial detection and identification is Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). It enables biochemical scans of whole bacterial cells or parts thereof at infrared frequencies (4,000-600 cm-1). The Read More

The Burkholderia genus is a highly diverse group of species that are distributed throughout a wide range of environments and habitats. Among this group, which is remarkable for its adaptability to a wider range of environmental conditions including disinfectants and organic solvents, are a subgroup that represents some of the most difficult to treat infections. This subgroup includes Burkholderia pseudomallei, the causative Read More

The type VI Secretion System (T6SS) is a tool for Gram-negative pathogens to interact with other bacteria as well as with the eukaryotic host cell. While the role of T6SS in interbacterial interactions has drawn much attention in recent years, research into the T6SS as a human virulence factor continues at a slower pace. Nevertheless, T6SS has been shown to interfere with eukaryotic host cell immunity at several levels, ranging Read More

The 3′-ends of both prokaryotic and eukaryotic RNA can be polyadenylated and the effect of polyadenylation is known to increase the stability of transcripts in eukaryotes, whereas it promotes instability in prokaryotes. RNAs are considered as key effectors of virulence mechanisms, since they are directly involved in regulatory pathways in pathogenic bacteria. Deadenylation of RNA is thus an important control point and rate-lim Read More

Currently, the bacterial resistance, especially to most commonly used antibiotics has proved to be a severe therapeutic problem. Nosocomial and community-acquired infections are usually caused by multidrug resistant strains. Therefore, we are forced to develop an alternative or supportive treatment for successful cure of life-threatening infections. The idea of using natural bacterial pathogens such as bacteriophages is alre Read More