Wednesday, October 11, 2017

Covalent lectin inhibition and application in bacterial biofilm imaging

Stefanie Wagner, Dirk Hauck, Michael Hoffmann, Roman Sommer, Ines Joachim, Rolf Müller, Anne Imberty, Annabelle Varrot, Alexander Titz
Angew. Chem. 2017
DOI: 10.1002/ange.201709368

Biofilm formation by pathogenic bacteria is a hallmark of chronic infections. In many cases, lectins play key roles in establishing biofilms. The pathogen Pseudomonas aeruginosa often exhibiting various drug resistances employs its lectins LecA and LecB as virulence factors and biofilm building blocks. Therefore, inhibition of the function of these proteins is thought to have potential in developing 'pathoblockers' preventing biofilm formation and virulence. Here, we describe for the first time a covalent lectin inhibitor specific to a carbohydrate binding site. In addition we report its application in the LecA-specific in vitro imaging of biofilms formed by P. aeruginosa.

Restricted Rotational Flexibility of the C5α-Methyl-Substituted Carbapenem NA-1-157 Leads to Potent Inhibition of the GES-5 Carbapenemase

Nichole K. Stewart, Marta Toth, Pojun Quan, Michael Beer, John D. Buynak, Clyde A. Smith, and Sergei B. Vakulenko ACS Infectious Diseases   ...