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Science:未來細菌戰士
閱讀:828 發布時間:2010-3-10一期的Science雜志上刊登了一種新型的抗生素研究成果,來自瑞士的科學家的文章Peptidomimetic Antibiotics Target Outer-Membrane Biogenesis in Pseudomonas aeruginosa解析了以細菌必需蛋白為靶標的抗生素。
參與研究的有來自瑞士蘇黎世大學化學系,蘇黎世功能性基因組研究中心,微生物顯微成像研究中心的科研工作者。
盡管抗生素級別越來越高,細菌總是輕松應戰,將細菌耐藥問題再度升級,抗菌新藥總是跟不上細菌耐藥變異的步伐,這也導致,感染性疾病的發病率和死亡率居高不下,甚至出現了可怕的超級耐藥菌。難怪有科學家稱,細菌是進化的*。
瑞士的科學家們一直從事內源性抗微生物多肽的研究,他們建立了一個多肽庫(protegrin I庫),不斷試驗尋找有效的抗菌素,期望找到未來細菌戰士。
在大量的篩選后,科學家們找到了一種針對假單胞菌必需蛋白的多肽。假單孢菌是一種條件致病菌及一種抗藥的細菌,它會給人類健康帶來嚴重的問題。必需蛋白是細菌代謝或合成過程其決定性作用的蛋白。
Nityakalyani Srinivas及其同僚對抗菌肽protegrin I進行了多次的篩選以尋找抗假單孢菌的活性;他們發現了一種化合物可特異性地抗該種細菌,但卻不會作用于其它的格蘭氏陰性及陽性細菌。研究人員能夠合成一族可模仿這種protegrin肽自然作用的抗菌素,并觀察其在小鼠體內抗假單孢菌感染的功效。
研究人員說,他們的抗菌素能夠通過摧毀一種叫做LptD的蛋白質(這是假單胞菌其外細胞膜的形成所至關重要的蛋白)而殺滅該致病菌。他們可能在未來在抵抗不同類型的格蘭氏陰性菌感染上非常有用,而格蘭氏陰性菌與抗多種藥物的菌株有關。
附文章來源:
Science. 2010 Feb 19;327(5968):1010-3.
Peptidomimetic antibiotics target outer-membrane biogenesis in Pseudomonas aeruginosa.
Srinivas N, Jetter P, Ueberbacher BJ, Werneburg M, Zerbe K, Steinmann J, Van der Meijden B, Bernardini F, Lederer A, Dias RL, Misson PE, Henze H, Zumbrunn J, Gombert FO, Obrecht D, Hunziker P, Schauer S, Ziegler U, Käch A, Eberl L, Riedel K, DeMarco SJ, Robinson JA.
Chemistry Department, University of Zurich, Winterthurerstrasse 190, 8057 Zurich, Switzerland.
ABSTRACT
Antibiotics with new mechanisms of action are urgently required to combat the growing health threat posed by resistant pathogenic microorganisms. We synthesized a family of peptidomimetic antibiotics based on the antimicrobial peptide protegrin I. Several rounds of optimization gave a lead compound that was active in the nanomolar range against Gram-negative Pseudomonas spp., but was largely inactive against other Gram-negative and Gram-positive bacteria.
Biochemical and genetic studies showed that the peptidomimetics had a non-membrane-lytic mechanism of action and identified a homolog of the beta-barrel protein LptD (Imp/OstA), which functions in outer-membrane biogenesis, as a cellular target. The peptidomimetic showed potent antimicrobial activity in a mouse septicemia infection model. Drug-resistant strains of Pseudomonas are a serious health problem, so this family of antibiotics may have important therapeutic applications.