Affiliation:
1. Pharma Research Basel, F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd., CH-4070 Basel, Switzerland
Abstract
ABSTRACT
New inhibitors of peptide deformylase (PDF) which are very potent against the isolated enzyme and show a certain degree of antibacterial activity have recently been synthesized by our group. Several lines of experimental evidence indicate that these inhibitors indeed interfere with the target enzyme in the bacterial cell. (i) The inhibition of
Escherichia coli
growth could be counteracted by overexpression of PDF from different organisms, including
E. coli, Streptococcus pneumoniae
, and
Haemophilus influenzae
. Conversely, reduced expression of PDF in
S. pneumoniae
resulted in an increased susceptibility to the inhibitors. (ii) Proteome analysis on two-dimensional gels revealed a shift for many proteins towards lower pI in the presence of PDF inhibitors, as would be expected if the proteins still carry their
N
-formyl-Met terminus. (iii) PDF inhibitors show no antimicrobial activity against
E. coli
under conditions that make growth independent of formylation and deformylation. The antibacterial activity in
E. coli
was characterized as bacteriostatic. Furthermore, the development of resistance in
E. coli
was observed to occur with high frequency (10
−7
). Resistant mutants show a reduced growth rate, and DNA sequence analysis revealed mutations in their formyl transferase gene. Taking all these aspects into account, we conclude that PDF may not be an optimal target for broad-spectrum antibacterial agents.
Publisher
American Society for Microbiology
Subject
Infectious Diseases,Pharmacology (medical),Pharmacology
Cited by
117 articles.
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