According
to the WHO, around 700,000 people die every year as a result of antibiotic
resistance. In Germany, around 6,000 people die every year because treatment
with antibiotics is not effective. Scientists at
Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU) and the University of
Oxford have now discovered that there is a point in the production process of
the proteins at which it can be regulated by bacteria. This could be used as a
starting point for the development of new antibiotics and help overcome
resistance to antibiotics.
Antibiotics
are used in the treatment of bacterial infections. They kill and inhibit the
growth of bacteria, allowing the infection to subside and the patient to
recover. However, during the last few years, increasing numbers of bacteria
have developed so-called antibiotic resistance, which means they are resistant
to the effects of antibiotics. Over time, these types of medication become
ineffective and multi-resistant bacteria become even more widespread as a
result.
In
bacteria, the RNA is produced using a large protein complex called RNA polymerase
(RNAP). The RNAP reads the DNA sequence and builds a copy of the RNA by joining
nucleotides together -- the fundamental building blocks of RNA -- during a
process called transcription. Since this production of RNA is fundamental for
the survival of the bacteria, it has already been the subject of intensive
research and used as the starting point for developing antibiotics, for example
for the treatment of tuberculosis. However, it remained unclear how the
production of RNA is also regulated at the stage of early transcription when
RNAP has just begun to join together the first few RNA building blocks. This
was the subject of the research carried out by the team of scientists.
The
researchers used high-end fluorescence microscopy, which allowed them to
monitor individual RNAP molecules as they started to produce RNA. They
discovered that the initial RNA synthesis is strongly regulated -- a certain
sequence of DNA forces the RNAP to pause for several seconds. It can only
continue with RNA production after this pause.
This
discovery completely changes our previous understanding of initial RNA
synthesis in bacteria.
See:
Posted by Dr. Tim Sandle