Searching for new antibiotics – inhibitors of bacterial chromosome replication

• Main Authors: Damian Trojanowski, Patrycja Skut, Joanna Hołówka, Marcin Jan Szafran
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Index Copernicus International S.A. 2014-06-01
• Series: Postępy Higieny i Medycyny Doświadczalnej
• Subjects: replication; DNA topology; bacterial chromosome; inhibitor; replisome; topoisomerases
• Online Access: http://phmd.pl/gicid/01.3001.0003.1244

The excessive and often unreasonable use of antibacterial drugs leads to rise of antibioticresistant strains. To overcome this problem, new antibiotics are searched and the new drug targets are investigated. The proteins involved in replication of bacterial chromosomes seem to be promising candidates for drug targets since they are involved in crucial life pathways and are structurally and/or functionally different from the eukaryotic homologues. Within last few years, a large number of newly developed methods allowed to search among thousands of molecules for the ones that specifically inhibit DNA synthesis in the prokaryotic cell. In this review, we present some of these methods.