Fight the resistance – Peptidoglycan hydrolases as weapons against resistant Staphylococcus aureus

Main funder

Funder's project number: 323435

Funds granted by main funder (€)

Funding program

Project timetable

Project start date: 01/09/2019

Project end date: 31/08/2023

Summary

Staphylococcus aureus is a bacterium of great concern because of its high virulence and ability to cause life-threatening infections. S. aureus is increasingly resistant to a greater number of antibiotics; MRSA strains can be concomitantly resistant to many groups of antibiotics and alarmingly, also to the drugs of last resort. Resistance severely complicates treatment, increases mortality and greatly raises the costs of treatment. Need for novel drugs against resistant S. aureus is pressing. We study enzymes that degrade S. aureus cell wall by cleaving glycyl-glycine bonds. Specificity and lytic potency makes these enzymes attractive targets of drug development. Using several biophysical techniques we characterize the enzyme–cell wall interaction at atomic scale and tackle enzyme regulation. Solving the structure–function relation enables enzyme engineering to a high-potency drug and development of tools to interfere with regulation as alternative means to exploit them as antibiotics.

Principal Investigator

Primary responsible unit

Internal follow-up group

Profiling area: Nanoscience Center (Department of Physics PHYS, JYFL) (Faculty of Mathematics and Science) (Department of Chemistry CHEM) (Department of Biological and Environmental Science BIOENV) NSC

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