Protein–protein interactions in bacteria: a promising and challenging avenue towards the discovery of new antibiotics

Laura Carro

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

17 Citations (Scopus)
6 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

Antibiotics are potent pharmacological weapons against bacterial infections; however, the growing antibiotic resistance of microorganisms is compromising the efficacy of the currently available pharmacotherapies. Even though antimicrobial resistance is not a new problem, antibiotic development has failed to match the growth of resistant pathogens and hence, it is highly critical to discover new anti-infective drugs with novel mechanisms of action which will help reducing the burden of multidrug-resistant microorganisms. Protein–protein interactions (PPIs) are involved in a myriad of vital cellular processes and have become an attractive target to treat diseases. Therefore, targeting PPI networks in bacteria may offer a new and unconventional point of intervention to develop novel anti-infective drugs which can combat the ever-increasing rate of multidrug-resistant bacteria. This review describes the progress achieved towards the discovery of molecules that disrupt PPI systems in bacteria for which inhibitors have been identified and whose targets could represent an alternative lead discovery strategy to obtain new anti-infective molecules.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)2881-2896
JournalBeilstein Journal of Organic Chemistry
Volume14
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 21 Nov 2018

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