Research at the University of Adelaide has resulted in the development of a potential new antibiotic that could help fight bacterial antibiotic resistance..

Its target is a bacterial enzyme critical for metabolic processes.

The compound is an inhibitor of a protein that binds to an enzyme (the so-called biotin ligase protein), stopping its action and interrupting the bacterial life cycle..

"

Professor Abel believes that the compound, although at a very early stage of development and has not even been tested in animals, has the potential to be the first of a new class of antibiotics.. " "

The development of a new protein inhibitor involved in the new approach is an integral part of the synthesis approach known as in situ click chemistry.. A set of small molecules or “precursor fragments” is present in bacteria in such a way that target protein-enzymes themselves compose inhibitory compounds and bind to them..

“In a sense, a bacterium unwittingly chooses a compound that will stop its growth and builds it - it's like creating a weapon and pointing it at itself,” says Professor Abel..

“We went even further to create an enzyme that will build the best and most powerful weapons. The results obtained are quite promising..

We have created compounds, we know that they bind and inhibit enzymes, and we have shown that they stop the growth of a number of bacteria in the laboratory.. The next critical step will be to study their effectiveness in animals.”.

“With this new approach, what could have taken years of experimentation can now be achieved in a single experiment.”.

medbe. en.