Antibiotics
are commonly used around the world to cure diseases caused by bacteria. But as
the World Health Organization and other international bodies have pointed out,
the global increase of antibiotic resistance is a rapidly worsening problem.
And since antibiotics are also an essential part of modern medicine, as
prophylactic treatment during surgeries and cancer therapy, rising resistance
of bacteria presents even more of a danger.
That's
why researchers are busy devising strategies to address this threat to human
health -- and Université de Montréal is at the forefront of the fight.
One
of the ways antibiotic resistance genes spread in hospitals and in the
environment is that the genes are coded on plasmids that transfer between
bacteria. A plasmid is a DNA fragment found in bacteria or yeasts. It carries
genes useful for bacteria, especially when these genes encode proteins that can
make bacteria resistant to antibiotics. Now a team of scientists at UdeM's
Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Medicine has come up with a novel
approach to block the transfer of resistance genes.
The
researchers screened a library of small chemical molecules for those that bind
to the TraE protein, an essential component of the plasmid transfer machinery.
Analysis by X-ray crystallography revealed the exact binding site of these
molecules on TraE. Having precise information on the binding site enabled the
researchers to design more potent binding molecules that, in the end, reduced
the transfer of antibiotic-resistant, gene-carrying plasmids.
See:
Posted by Dr. Tim Sandle