Review: Antibiotic discovery in the age of structural biology - a comprehensive overview with special reference to development of drugs for the treatment of Pseudomonas aeruginosa infection

Abstract

Due to the persistence and spread of antibiotic resistance, the discovery and exploitation of new antibiotic targets should be the subject of intensive research. Effective strategies are required to develop antibiotic alternatives. Antibiotics that act on new targets or via novel mechanisms have the greatest likelihood of overcoming resistance. In particular, there is a lack of specific antibiotics for Pseudomonas aeruginosa, one of the leading causes of healthcare-associated infections, exhibiting high resistance levels. Herein we describe how structure-based drug design can be used to achieve new antibiotics for the treatment of Pseudomonas aeruginosa infection, using an essential enzyme of the fatty acid synthesis pathway from P. aeruginosa as an example.

Keywords: Antibiotic research; Gram negative; Pseudomonas aeruginosa; crystallography; inhibitor design; review.