Insights in the search for new antibiotics

Date:
November 19, 2020
Source:
University of Oklahoma
Summary:
A collaborative research team published an opinion article that
addresses the gap in the discovery of new antibiotics.



FULL STORY ==========================================================================
A collaborative research team from the University of Oklahoma, the
Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and Merck & Co. published an
opinion article in the journal, Nature Chemical Biology, that addresses
the gap in the discovery of new antibiotics.


==========================================================================
"The rapid spread of antibiotic-resistant bacteria in clinics challenges
our modern medicine and the traditional approaches to antibiotic discovery
fail to generate new drugs needed for treatment of antibiotic resistant infections," Zgurskaya said. "The current COVID-19 pandemic further
magnifies this problem because patients in intensive care units are particularly vulnerable to such infections ... (our) team is working
on developing new tools to guide the discovery and optimization of new antibacterial agents." Zgurskaya adds that the increasing frequency of antibiotic resistance has created a significant health care challenge
and will progressively worsen without innovative solutions.

"In particular, Gram-negative pathogens present both biological and
chemical challenges that hinder the discovery of new antibacterial drugs," Zgurskaya said. "As a result of these challenges, intensive screening
campaigns have led to few successes, highlighting the need for new
approaches to identify regions of chemical space that are specifically
relevant to antibacterial drug discovery." In the article, the research
team provides an overview of emerging insights into this problem and
outline a general approach for researchers and scientists to address it.

"The overall goal is to develop robust cheminformatic tools to predict
Gram- negative permeation and efflux, which can then be used to guide
medicinal chemistry campaigns and the design of antibacterial discovery libraries," Zgurskaya said.

The research was supported with funding from the U.S. Department of Health
and Human Services and the National Institutes of Health. The article,
Defining new chemical space for drug penetration into Gram-negative
bacteria, is available in the November 2020 issue of the academic journal, Nature Chemical Biology.


========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by University_of_Oklahoma. Note:
Content may be edited for style and length.


========================================================================== Journal Reference:
1. Shibin Zhao, Justyna W. Adamiak, Vincent Bonifay, Jitender Mehla,
Helen
I. Zgurskaya, Derek S. Tan. Defining new chemical space for drug
penetration into Gram-negative bacteria. Nature Chemical Biology,
2020; 16 (12): 1293 DOI: 10.1038/s41589-020-00674-6 ==========================================================================

Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/11/201119141753.htm

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