Warwick: New target for developing antibiotics

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Researchers at Warwick University in the UK have uncovered an essential metabolic pathway in bacteria that could form the basis of novel antibiotics.

Working with the bacterium Pectobacterium chrysanthemi which infects plants, in particular the common houseplant African violet, the researchers Nadia Kadi, Daniel Oves-Costales, Lijiang Song and Gregory Challis examined how siderophores, one of the key tools the bacterium uses to harvest iron, are assembled. They discovered that an enzyme, achromobactin, binds citric acid, a vital iron-binding component of siderophores. Blocking or inhibiting achromobactin prevents the bacterium from harvesting iron, essentially starving it.

This work also has implications for the treatment of several virulent and even deadly infections, including anthrax, since anthrax in humans relies on a similar mechanism to harvest iron.

The potential of the discovery may go beyond treatments for Anthrax. The researchers are now looking at similar enzymes involved in the assembly of citric acid-derived siderophores in E. coli and MRSA, which may offer further targets for drug development.